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KINGSTON. ONTARIO

REPORT,

THE AFFAIRS

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

A-

FROM THE

EARL OF DURHAM,

HER MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONER,

&c. &c. &c.

TORONTO:
PRINTED BY ROBERT STANTON.

MDCCCXXXIX.

• • • •

••••• •••••

I0<

REPORT.

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

Mat it please Your Majesty :

Your Majesty, in entrusting me with the Government of the Pro*
vince of Lower Canada, during the critical period of the suspension of
its Constitution, was pleased, at the same time, to impose on me a task of
equal difficulty, and of far more permanent importance, by appointing
me "High Commissioner for the adjustment of certain important ques-
tions depending in the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, respecting
the form and future Government of the said Provinces." To enable me
to discharge this duty with the greater efficiency, I was invested, not only
with the title, but with the actual functions of Governor General of all
Your Majesty's North American Provinces ; and my instructions restricted
my authority by none of those limitations that had, in fact, deprived pre-
ceding Governors of Lower Canada of all control over the other Provinces,
which, nevertheless, it had been the practice to render nominally subordi-
nate to them. It was in addition, therefore, to the exclusive management
of the administrative business of an extensive and disturbed Province, to
the legislative duties that were accumulated on me during the abeyance
of its representative Government, and to the constant communications
which I was compelled to maintain, not only with the Lieutenant Gover-
nors, but also with individual inhabitants of the other five Provinces, that
I had to search into the nature and extent of the questions, of which the
adjustment is requisite for the tranquillity of the Canadas; to set on foot
various and extensive inquiries into the institutions and administration of
those Provinces ; and to devise such reforms in the system of their Gov-
ernment as might repair the mischief which had already been done, and
lay the foundations of order, tranquillity and improvement.

The task of providing for the adjustment of questions affecting the very
M form and administration of Civil Government," was naturally limited to
the two Provinces in which the settlement of such questions had been ren-
dered matter of urgent necessity, by the events that had in one seriously
endangered, and in the other actually suspended, the working of the exist-
ing Constitution. But though the necessity only reached thus far, the
extension of my authority over all the British Provinces in North America,
for the declared purpose of enabling me more effectually to adjust the
constitutional questions then at issue in two of them, together with the spe-
cific instructions contained in Despatches from the Secretary of State,
brought under my view the character and influence of the institutions
established in all. I found in all these Provinces a form of Government
so nearly the same — institutions generally so similar, and occasionally so
connected — and interests, feelings and habits, so much in common, that it
was obvious, at the first glance, that my conclusions would be formed with •
out a proper use of the materials at my disposal, unless my inquiries were
as extended as my power of making them. How inseparably connected I
found the interests Of Your Majesty's Provinces in North America, to

what degree I met with common disorders, requiring common remedies, is
an important topic, which it will be my duty to discuss very fully before
closing this Report. My object at present is merely to explain the extent
of the task imposed on me, and to point out the fact, that an inquiry origi-
nally directed only to two, has necessarily been extended over all Your
Majesty's Provinces in North America.

While I found the field of inquiry thus large, and every day's experience
and reflection impressed more deeply on my mind the importance of the
decision which it would be my duty to suggest, it became equally clear,
that that decision, to be of any avail, must be prompt and final. I needed
no personal observation to convince me of this; for the evils I had it in
charge to remedy, are evils which no civilized community can long con-
tinue to bear. There is no class or section of Your Majesty's Subjects in
either of the Canadas, that does not suffer from both the existing disorder
and the doubt which hangs over the future form and policy of the Govern-
ment. While the present state of things is allowed to last, the actual
inhabitants of these Provinces have no security for person or property —
no enjoyment of what they possess — no stimulus to industry. The deve-
lopment of the vast resources of these extensive territories is arrested ; and
the population, which should be attracted to fill and fertilize them, is
directed into Foreign States. Every day, during which a final and stable
settlement is delayed, the condition of the Colonies becomes worse — the
minds of men more exasperated — and the success of any scheme of adjust-
ment more precarious.

I was aware of the necessity of promptitude in my decision on the most
important of the questions committed to me at a very early period after
my acceptance of the mission which Your Majesty was pleased to confide
to me. Before leaving England, I assured Your Majesty's Ministers, that
the plan which I should suggest for the future Government of the Canadas,
should be in readiness by the commencement of the ensuing Session ; and,
though I had made provision that, under any circumstances, the measures
which I might suggest should be explained and supported in Parliament
hy some person who would have had a share in the preparation of them,
I added, that it was not improbable that J might deem it my paramount
duty towards the Provinces entrusted to me to attend in my place in the
House of Lords, for the purpose of explaining my own views, and support-
ing my own recommendations. My resignation of the office of Governor
General has, therefore, in nowise precipitated my suggestion of the plan
which appears to me best calculated to settle the future form and policy
of Government in the Canadas. It has prevented, certainly, my complet-
ing some inquiries which I had instituted, with a view of effecting practical
reforms of essential, but still of subordinate importance. But with the
chief of my duties as High Commissioner — that of suggesting the future
Constitution of these Colonies — that event has interfered in no way, except
in so far as the circumstances which attended it occasioned an undue
intrusion of extraneous business on the time which was left for the com-
pletion of my labours.

In truth, the administrative and legislative business which daily demanded
my attention could, with difficulty, be discharged by the most unremitting
labour on my own part, and on that of all those who accompanied me
from England, or were employed by me in Canada.

It is in these circumstances, and under such disadvantages, that this
Jleport has been prepared. I may not, therefore, present as extended and

as complete a foundation as I could have wished, for those measures of vast
and permanent importance which Parliament will find it necessary to
adopt. But it will include the whole range of those subjects which it is
essential should be brought under Your Majesty's view, and will prove
that I have not rested content without fully developing the evils which lie
at the root of the disorders of the North American Provinces — and at the
same time suggesting remedies which, to the best of my judgment, will
provide an effectual cure.

The same reasons, and the same obstacles, have prevented me from
annexing a greater amount of detail and illustration, which, under more
favourable circumstances, it would have been incumbent on me to collect,
for the purpose of rendering clear and familiar to every mind, every par-
ticular of a state of things on which little correct, and much false infor-
mation, has hitherto been current in this country. I cannot, therefore, but
deeply regret that such a drawback on its efficacy should have been a
necessary consequence of the circumstances under which the Report has
been prepared. I still hope that the materials collected by me, though
not as ample as I could have desired, will, nevertheless, be found sufficient
for enabling the Imperial Legislature to form a sound decision on the
important interests which are involved in the result of its deliberations.

These interests are, indeed, of great magnitude ; and on the course which
Your Majesty, and Your Parliament may adopt, with respect to the North
American Colonies, will depend the future destinies, not only of the mil-
lion and a half of Your Majesty's Subjects, who at present inhabit those
Provinces, but of that vast population which those ample and fertile terri-
tories are fit and destined hereafter to support. No portion of the Ame-
rican Continent possesses greater natural resources for the maintenance
of large and flourishing communities. An almost boundless range of the
richest soil still remains unsettled, and may be rendered available for the
purposes of agriculture. The wealth of inexhaustible forests of the best
timber in America, and of extensive regions of the most valuable minerals,
have as yet been scarcely touched. Along the whole line of sea-coast,
around each island, and in every river, are to be found the greatest and
richest fisheries in the world. The best fuel, and the most abundant water-
power, are available for the coarser manufactures, for which an easy and
certain market will be found. Trade with other Continents is favoured
by the possession of a large number of safe and spacious harbours; long,
deep, and numerous rivers, and vast inland seas, supply the means of easy
intercourse; and the structure of the country generally affords the utmost
facility for every species of communication by land. Unbounded mate-
rials of agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry are there:
it depends upon the present decision of the Imperial Legislature to deter-
mine for whose benefit they are to be rendered available. The Country
which has founded and maintained these Colonies, at a vast expense of
blood and treasure, may justly expect its compensation in turning their
unappropriated resources to the account of its own redundant population ;
they are the rightful patrimony of the English people — the ample apanage
which God and nature have set aside in the New World, for those whose
lot has assigned them but insufficient portions in the Old. Under wise and
and free institutions, these great advantages may yet be secured to Your
Majesty's Subjects — and a connection, secured by the link of kindred
origin, and mutual benefits, may continue to bind to the British Empire
the ample territories of its North American Provinces, and the large and
flourishing population by which they will assuredly be filled.

LOWER CANADA.

The prominent place which the dissensions of Lower Canada had, for some
years, occupied in the eyes of the Imperial Legislature, the alarming state
of disorder indicated or occasioned by the recent insurrection, and the par-
amount necessity of my applying my earliest efforts to the re-establishment
of free and regular government in that particular Colony, in which it was
then wholly suspended, necessarily directed my first inquiries to the Pro-
vince of which the local government was vested in my hands. The sus-
pension of the Constitution gave me an essential advantage over my pre-
decessors in the conduct of my inquiries; it not merely relieved me from
the burden of constant discussions with the legislative bodies, but it en-
abled me to turn my attention from the alleged to the real grievances of
the Provinee ; to leave on one side those matters of temporary contest
which accident, or the interests and passions of parties, had elevated into
undue importance; and, without reference to the representations of the
disputants, to endeavour to make myself master of the real condition of
the people, and the real causes of dissatisfaction or suffering. It was also a
great advantage to me, in one respect, that the ordinary business of the
government of the Province was combined with the functions of my inquiry.
The routine of every day's administrative business brought strongly and
familiarly before me the working of the institutions on which I was called
to judge. The condition of the people, the system by which they were
governed, were thus rendered familiar to me, and I soon became satisfied,
that I must search in the very composition of society, and in the funda-
mental institutions of government, for the causes of the constant and ex-
tensive disorder which I witnessed.

The lengthened and various discussions which had for some years been
carried on between the contending parties in the Colony, and the repre-
sentations which had been circulated at home, had produced in mine, as
in most minds in England, a very erroneous view of the parties at issue
in Lower Canada. The quarrel which I was sent for the purpose of heal-
ing, had been a quarrel between the executive government and the popular
branch of the legislature. The latter body had, apparently, been con-
tending for popular rights and free government. The executive govern-
ment had been defending the prerogative of the Crown, and the institu-
tions which, in accordance with the principles of the British constitution,
had been established as checks on the unbridled exercises of popular power.
Though, during the dispute, indications had been given of the existence
of dissensions, yet deeper and more formidable than any which arose from
simply political causes, I had still, in common with most of my country-
men, imagined that the original and constant source of the evil was to be
found in the defects of the political institutions of the provinces; that a
reform of the constitution, or perhaps merely the introduction of a sounder
practice itnto the administration of the government, would remove all
causes of contest and complaint. This opinion was strenghtened by the
jvell-known fact, that the political dissensions which had produced their
most formidable Jesuits in this Province, had assumed a similar, though
milder form in the neighbouring Colonies; and that the tranquillity of
each of the North American Provinces was subject to constant disturbance
from collision between the Executive and the Representatives of the
people. The Constitutions of these Colonies, the official characters and
positions of the contending parties, the avowed subjects of dispute, and

the general principles asserted on each side, were »o similar, that I could
not but concur in the very general opinion, that the common quarrel was
the result of some common defect in the almost identical institutions of
these Provinces. I looked upon it as a dispute analogous to those with
which history and experience have made us so familiar in Europe — a dis-
pute between a people demanding an extension of popular privileges on
the one hand, and an Executive on the other, defending the powers which
it conceived necessary for the maintenance of order. I supposed that my
principal business would be that of determining how far each party might
be in the right, or which was in the wrong ; of devising some means of
removing the defects which had occasioned the collision ; and of restoring
such a balance of the constitutional powers as might secure the free and
peaceful working of the machine of government.

In a despatch which 1 addressed to your Majesty's Principal Secretary
of State for the Colonies, on the 9th of August last, I detailed with great
minuteness the impressions which had been produced on my mind by the
state of things which existed in Lower Canada. I acknowledge that the
experience derived from my residence in the Province had completely
changed my view of the relative influence of the causes which had been
assigned for the existing disorders. I had not, indeed, been brought to
believe that the institutions of Lower Canada were less defective than I
had originally presumed them to be. From the peculiar circumstances
in which 1 was placed, I was enabled to make such effectual observations
as convinced me that there had existed in the Constitution of the Province,
in the balance of political powers, in the spirit and practice of adminis-
tration in every department of the Government, defects that were quite
sufficient to account for a great degree of mismanagement and dissatis-
faction. The same observation had also impressed on me the conviction
that, for the peculiar and disastrous dissensions of this Province, there
existed a far deeper and far more efficient cause — a cause which penetra-
ted beneath its political institutions into its social state — a cause which no
reform of constitution or laws that should leave the elements of society
unaltered could remove, but which must be removed ere any success
could be expected in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this un-
happy Province. I expected to find a contest between a government and
I a people : I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state : I
j found a struggle, not of principles, but of races ; and I perceived that it
would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions, until we
could first succeed in terminating the deadly animosity that now separates
the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of French and
English.

It would be vain for me to expect that any description I can give wijf
impress on your Majesty such a view of the animosity of these races, as-
my personal experience in Lower Canada has forced on me. Our hap-
py immunity from any feelings of national hostility, renders it difficult
for us to comprehend the intensity of the hatred which the difference of
language, of laws, and of manners, creates between those who inhabit
the same village, and are citizens of the same state. We are ready to
believe that the real motive of the quarrel is something else, and that the
difference of race has slightly and occasionally aggravated dissensions,
which we attribute to some more usual cause. Experience of a state of
society, so unhappily divid-ed as that of Lower Canada, leads to an ex-
actly contrary opinion. The national feud forces itself on the very senses,

8

irresistibly and palpably, as the origin or the essence of every dispute
which divides the community ; we discover that dissensions, which appear
to have another origin, are but forms of this constant and all-pervading
quarrel; and that every contest is one of French and English in the
outset, or becomes so ere it has run its course.

The political discontents, for which the vicious system of government
has given too much cause, have for a long time concealed or modified
the influence of the national quarrel. It has been argued that origin
can have but little effect in dividing the country, inasmuch as individuals
of each race have constantly been enlisted together on the side of govern-
ment, or been found united in leading the Assembly to assail its alleged
abuses; that the names of some of the prominent leaders of the rebellion
mark their English, while those of some of the most unpopular sup-
porters of the government denote their French origin ; and that the repre-
sentatives, if not of an actual majority, (as has occasionally been asserted)
at any rate of a large proportion of the purely English population, have
been found constantly voting with the majority of the assembly against
what is called the British party. Temporary and local causes have no
doubt, to a certain extent, produced such results. The national hostility
has not assumed its permanent influence till of late years, nor has it
exhibited itself every where at once. While it displayed itself long ago
in the cities of Quebec and Montreal, where the leaders and masses of
the rival races most speedily came into collision, the inhabitants of the
eastern townships, who where removed from all personal contact with
the French, and those of the district below Quebec, who experienced
little interference from the English, continued to a very late period to
entertain comparatively friendly feelings towards those of the opposite
races. But this is a distinction which has unfortunately, year after year,
been exhibiting itself more strongly, and diffusing itself more widely.
One by one the ancient English leaders of the Assembly have fallen off
from the majority, and attached themselves to the party which supported
the British Government against it. Every election from the townships
added to the English minority. On the other hand, year after year, in
spite of the various influences which a government can exercise, and of
which no people in the world are more susceptible than the French
Canadians; in spite of the additional motives of prudence and patriotism
which deter timid or calm men from acting with a party, obviously endan-
gering the public tranquillity by the violence of its conduct, the number
of French Canadians, on whom the Government could rely, has been
narrowed by the influence of those associations which have drawn them
into the ranks of their kindred. The insurrection of 1837 completed the
division. Sinqe the resort to arms the two races have been distinctly and
completely arrayed against each other. No portion of the English popu-
lation was backward in taking arms in defence of the Government; with
a single exception, no portion of the Canadian population was allowed
to do so, even where it was asserted by some that their loyalty inclined
them thereto. The exasperation thus generated has extended over the
whole of each race. The most just and sensible of the English, those
whose politics had always been most liberal, those who had always advo-
cated the most moderate policy in the provincial disputes, seem from that
moment to have taken their part against the French as resolutely, if not
as fiercely, as the rest of their countrymen, and to have joined in the
determination never again to submit to a French majority. A few excep-

9

tions mark ihe existence, rather than militate against the truth of the
general rule of national hostility. A few of the French, distinguished
by moderate and enlarged views, still condemn the narrow national
prejudices and ruinous violence of their countrymen, while they equally
resist what they consider the violent and unjust pretensions of a minority,
and endeavour to form a middle party between the two extremes. A
large part of the Catholic Clergy, a few of the principal proprietors of the
selgnOrial families, and some of those who are influenced by ancient con-
nexions of party, support the government against revolutionary violence.
A very few persons of English Origin, (not more perhaps than fifty out of
the whole number) still continue to act with the party which they originally
espoused. Those who allect to form a middle party exercise no influence
on the contending extremes ; and those who side with the nation from
which their birth distinguishes them, are regarded by their countrymen
with aggravated hatred, as renegades from their race; while they obtain
but little of the real affection, confidence or esteem of those whom they
have joined.

The grounds of quarrel which are commonly alleged appear, on inves-
tigation, to have little to do with its real cause; and the inquirer, who
has imagined that the public demonstrations or professions of the parties
have put him in possession of their real motives and designs, is surprised
to find, upon nearer observation, how much he has been deceived by the
false colours under which they have been in the habit of fighting. It is
not, indeed surprising, that each party should, in this instance, have
practised more than the usual frauds of language, by which factions in
every country seek to secure the sympathy of other communities. A
quarrel based on the mere ground of national animosity, appears so re-
volting to the notions of good sense and charity prevalent in the civilized
world, that the parties who feel such a passion the most strongly, and
indulge it the most openly, are at great pains to class themselves under
any denominations but those which would correctly designate their objects
and feelings. The French Canadians have attempted to shroud their
hostility to the influence of English emigration, and the introduction of
British institutions, under the guise of warfare against the Government
and its supporters, whom they iepresented to be a small knot of corrupt
and insolent dependents; being a majority, they have invoked the prin-
ciples of popular control and democracy, and appealed with no little
effect to the sympathy of liberal politicians in every quarter of the world.
The English, finding their opponents in collision with the government,
have raised the cry of loyalty and attachment to British connection, and
denounced the republican designs of the French, whom they designate,
or rather used to designate, by the appellation of Radicals. Thus the
French have been viewed as a democratic party, contending for reform ;
and the English as a Conservative minority, protecting the menaced
connection with the British Crown, and the supreme authority of the
empire- There is truth in this notion, in so far as lespects t lie means by
which each party sought to carry its own views of government into effect.
The French majority asserted the most democratic doctrines of the rights
of a numerical majority. The English minority availed itself of the
protection of the prerogative, and allied itself with all those of the colo-
nial institutions which enabled the few to resist the will of the many.
But when we look to the objects of each party, the analogy to our own
B

10

politics seems to be lost, if not actually reversed ; the French appear to
have used their democratic arms for conservative purposes, rather than
those of liberal and enlightened movement; and the sympathies of the
friends of reform are naturally enlisted on the side of sound amelioration,
which the English minority in vain attempted to introduce into the anti-
quated laws of the Province.

Yet even on the questions which had been most recently the prominent
matters of dispute between the two parties, it is difficult to believe that
the hostility of the races was the effect, and not the cause, of the per-
tinacity with which the desired reforms were pressed or resisted.
\ The English complained of the Assembly's refusal to establish registry
offices, and to commute the feudal tenures; and yet it was among the
ablest and most influential leaders of the English that I found some of
the opponents of both the proposed reforms. The leaders of the French
were anxious to disclaim any hostility to these reforms themselves. Many
of them represented the reluctance which the Assembly had exhibited to
entertain these questions, as a result of the extraordinary influence which
Mr. Papineau exercised over that body ; his opposition was accounted for
by some peculiar prejudices of education and professional" practice, in which
he was said to find little concurrence among his countrymen ; it was stated
that even his influence would not have prevented these questions from
being very favourably entertained by the Assembly, had it ever met again j
and I received assurances of a friendly disposition towards them, which I
must say were very much at variance with the reluctance which the lead-
ing men of the party shewed to any co-operation with me in the attempts
which I subsequently made to carry these very objects into effect. At the
same time, while the leading men of the French party thus rendered
themselves liable to the imputation of a timid or narrow-minded opposi-
tion to these improvements, the mass of the French population, who are
immediate sufferers by the abuses of the seigniorial system, exhibited, in
every possible shape, their hostility to the state of things which their lea-
ders had so obstinately maintained. There is every reason to believe
that a great number of the peasants who fought at St. Denis and St.
Charles, imagined that the principal result of success would be the over-
throw of tithes and feudal burthens ; and in the declaration of indepenence,
which Dr. Robert Nelson issued, two of the objects of the insurrection
were stated to be the abolition of fedual tenures, and the establishment of
registry offices.* When I observe these inconsistencies of conduct
among the opponents and supporters of these reforms; when I consider
that their attainment was prevented by means of the censitoires, the very
persons most interested in their success, and that they were not more eager-
ly demanded by the wealthier of the English, than by the artisans and
labourers of that race whose individual interests would hardly have derived
much direct benefit from their suceess, I cannot but think that many,
both of the supporters and of the opponents, cared less for the measures
themselves, than for the handle which the agitation of them gave to theu-

* Among the few petitions, except those of mere compliment, which I received from French-
Canadians, were three or four for the abolition and commutation of the feudal tenures. But the
most remarkable was one which was presented from the inhabitants of the county of Saguenay,
and supported by Mr, Charles Drolet, late M. P. P. for that county. The petitioners, who re-
presented themselves as suffering under a degree of distress, of which the existence is too de-
plorably certain, prayed to be allowed to settle on the wild lands at the head of the Saguenay.
They expressed their willingness to take the lands on any conditions which the Government
might propose, but they prayed that it should not be granted on the fedual tenure.

11

national hostility ; that the Assembly resisted these changes chiefly be-
cause the English desired them ; and that the eagerness with which many
of the English urged them was stimulated by rinding them opposed by
the French.

Nor did I find the spirit which animated each party at all more coinci-
dent with the representations current in this country, than their objects
appeared., when tried by English, or, rather, by European ideas of
reforming legislation. An utterly uneducated and singularly inert popu-
lation, implicitly obeying leaders who ruled them by the influence of a
blind confidence and narrow national prejudices, accorded very little with
the resemblance which had been discovered to that high-spirited demo-
cracy which effected the American Revolution. Still less could 1 dis-
cover in the English population those slavish tools of a narrow official
clique, or a few purse-proud merchants, which their opponents had
described them as being. I have found the main body of the English
population, consisting of hardy farmers and humble mechanics, compo-
sing a very independent, not very manageable, and sometimes, a rather
turbulent democracy. Though constantly professing a somewhat ex-
travagant loyally and high prerogative doctrines, I found them very
determined on maintaining, in their own persons, a great respect for
popular rights, and singularly ready to enforce their wishes by the
strongest means of constitutional pressure on the government. Between
them and the Canadians I found the strongest hostility ; and that hostility
was, as might be expected, most strongly developed among the humblest
and rudest of the body. Between them and the small knot of officials,
whose influence has been represented as so formidable, I found no sym-
pathy whatever; and it must be said, in justice tolhis body of officials,
who have been so much assailed as the enemies of the Canadian people,
that however little I can excuse the injurious influence of that system of
administration, which they were called upon to carry into execution, the
members of the oldest and most powerful official families were, of all the
English in the country, those in whom I generally found most sympathy
with, and kindly feeling towards, the French population. 1 could not
therefore believe that this animosity was only that subsisting between an
official oligarchy and a people ; and again, I was brought to a conviction
that the contest, which had been represented as a contest of classes, was
in in fact, a contest of races.

However unwilling we may be to attribute the disorders of a country
connected with us to a cause so fatal to its tranquillity, and one which it
seems so difficult to remove, no very long or laboured consideration of the
relative characters and position of these races is needed, for convincing
us of their invincible hostility towards each other. It is scarcely possible
to conceive descendants of any of the great European nations more unlike
each other in character and temperament, more totally separated from
each other by language, laws, and modes of life, or placed in circumstan-
ces more calculated to produce mutual misunderstanding, jealousy and
hatred. To conceive the incompatibility of the two races in Canada,
it is not enough that we should picture to ourselves a community com-
posed of equal proportions of French and English. We must bear in
mind what kind of French and English they are that are brought in con-
tact, and in what proportions they meet.

The institutions of France, during the period of the colonization of
Canada,were, perhaps, more than those of any other European na'tion, cal-

12

culated to repress the intelligence and freedom of the great mass of the peo-
ple. These institutions followed the Canadian colonist across the atlantic.
The same. central, ill-organized, unimproving and repressive despotism,
extended over him. Not merely was he allowed no voice in the govern-
ment of his Province, or the choice of his rulers, but he was not even
permitted to associate with his neighbours for the regulation of those
municipal affairs, which the central authority neglected under the pretext
of managing, lie obtained his land on a tenure singularly calculated to
promote his immediate comfort, and to check his desire to better his con-
dition : he was placed at once in a life of constant and unvarying labour,
of great material comfort, and factual dependence. The ecclesiastical
authority to which he had been accustomed, established its institutions
around him, and the priest continued to exercise over him his ancient in-
fluence. No general provision was made for education ; and, as its
necessity was not appreciated, the colonist made no attempt to repair the
negligence of his government. It need not surprise us that, under such
circumstances, a race of men habituated to the incessant labour of a rude
and unskilled agriculture, and habitually fond of social enjoyments, con-
gregated together in rural communities, occupying portions of the wholly
unappropriated soil, sufficient to provide each family with material com-
forts, far beyond their ancient means, or almost their conceptions; that
they made little advance beyond the first progress in comfort, which the
bounty of the soil absolutely forced upon them ; that under the same in-
stitutions they remained the same uninstructed, inactive, unprogressive
people. Along the alluvial banks of the St. Lawrence, and its tributaries,
they have cleared two or three strips of land, cultivated them in the
worst method of small farming, and established a series of continuous
villages, which give the country of the seigniories the appearance of a
never-ending street. Besides the cities which were the seats oi govern-
ment, no towns were established ; the rude manufactures of the country
were, and still are, carried on in the cottage by the family of the habitant;
and an insignificant proportion of the population derived their subsist-
ence from the scarcely discernible commerce of the province. Whatever
energy existed among the population was employed in the fur trade,
and the occupations of hunting, which they and their descendants have
carried beyond the Rocky M"untains, and still, in great measure, monopo-
lise in the whole valley of the Mississippi. The mass of the community
exhibited in the New World the characteristics of the peasantry of Eu-
rope. Society was dense ; and even the wants and the poverty which the
pressure of population occasions in the Old World, became not to be
wholly unknown. iThey clung to ancient prejudices, ancient customs
and ancient laws, not from any strong sense of their beneficial effects, but
with the unreasoning tenacity of an uneducated and unprogressive peo-
pje. Nor were they wanting in the virtues of a simple and industrious life,
or in those which common consent attributes to the nation from which
ihey spxing. The temptations which, in other states of society, lead to
offences against property, and the passions which prompt to violence, were
little known among them. They are mild and kindly, frugal, industrious
and honest, very sociable, cheerful and hospitable, and distinguished for
a courtesy and real politeness which pervades every class of society. The
conquest has changed them but little. The higher classes, and the inhabi-
tants of the towns, have adopted some English customs and feelings; but
the continued negligence of the B.ritjsh government left the mass of the
people without any of the institutions which would have elevated them in

13

freedom and civilization. It has left them without the education and I
without the institutions of local self-government, that would have assimi-
lated their character and habits, in the easiest and best way, to those of
the Empire of which they became a part. They remain an old and sta-
tionary society, in a new and progressive world. In all essentials they
are still French ; but French in every respect dissimilar to those of France
in the present day. They resemble rather the French of the provinces
under the old regime.

I cannot pass over this subject without calling particular attention to a
peculiarity in the social condition of this people, of which the important
l)earing on the troubles of Lower Canada has never, in my opinion, been
properly estimated. The circumstances of a new and unsettled country,
the operation of the French laws of inheritance, and the absence of any
means of accumulation, by commerce or manufactures, have produced a
remarkable equality of pioperties and conditions. A few seignorial fami-
lies possess large, though not often very valuable properties ; the class
entirely dependent on wages is very small ; the bulk of the population is
composed of the hard-working yeomanry of the country districts, com-
monly called habitants, and their connections, engaged in other occupa-
tions. It is impossible to exaggerate the want of education among the
habitants ; no means of instruction have ever been provided for them, and
they are almost universally destitute of the qualifications even of reading
and writing. It came to my knowledge that out of a great number of
boys and girls assembled at the school-house door of St. Thomas, all but
three admitted, on inquiry, that they could not read. Yet the children of
this large parish, attend school regularly, and actually make use of books.
They hold the catechism book in their hand, as if they were reading, while
they only repeat its contents, which they know by rote. The common
assertion, however, that all classes of the Canadians are equally ignorant,
is perfectly erroneous: for I know of no people among whom a larger pro-
vision exists for the higher kinds of elementary education, or among whom
such education is really extended to a larger proportion of the population.
The piety and benevolence of the early possessors of the country founded,
in the seminaries that exist in different parts of the Province, institutions,
of which the funds and activity have long been directed to the promotion
of education. Seminaries and colleges have been, by these bodies, es-
tablished in the cities and in other central points. The education given
in these establishments greatly resembles the kind given in the English
public schools, though it is rather more varied. It is entirely in the hands
of the Catholic Clergy. The number of pupils in these establishments is
estimated altogether at about a thousand ; and they turn out every year, as
far as I could ascertain, between two and three huudred young men thus
educated. Almost all of these are members of the family of some habitant,
whom the possession of greater quickness than his brothers has induced the
father or the Curate of the parish to select and send to the seminary. These
young men possessing a degree of information immeasurably superior to
that of their families, are naturally averse to what they regard as descending
to the humble occupations of their parents. A few become Priests ; but
as the Military and Naval professions are closed against the Colonist, the
greater part can only find a position suited to their notions of their own
qualifications, in the learned professions of Advocate, Notary, and Sur-
geon. As from this cause these professions are greatly overstocked,
we rind every village in Lower Canada filled with Notaries and Sur-

14

geons, with little practice to occupy their attention, and living among
their own families, or at any rate among exactly the same class. Thus
the persons of most education in every village belong to the same families,
and the same original station in life, as the illiterate habitans whom I
have described. They are connected with them by all the associations of
early youth, and the ties of blood. The most perfect equality always
marks their intercourse, and the superior in education is separated by no
barrier of manners, or pride, or distinct interests, from the singularly
ignorant peasantry by which he is surrounded. He combines, therefore,
the influences of superior knowledge and social equality, and wields a
power over the mass, which I do not believe that the educated class of
any other portion of the world possess. To this singular state of things
I attribute the extraordinary influence of the Canadian demagogues. —
The most uninstructed population anywhere trusted with political power
is thus placed in the hands of a small body of instructed persons, in whom
it reposes the confidence which nothing but such domestic connexion and
such community of interest could generate. Over the class of persons by
whom the peasantry are thus led, the government has not acquired, or
ever laboured to acquire, influence. Its members have been thrown into
opposition by the system of exclusion long prevalent in the colony, and
it is by their agency that the leaders of the assembly have been enabled
hitherto to move as one mass in whatever direction they thought proper,
the simple and ductile population of the country. The entire neglect of
education by the government has thus, more than any other cause, con-
tributed to render tffrs people ungovernable, and to invest the agitator
with the power which he wields against the laws and the public tranquillity.
Among this people the progress of emigration has of late years intro-
duced an English population, exhibiting the characteristics with which we
are familiar, as those of the most enterprising of every class of our coun-
trymen. The circumstances of the early Colonial Administration excluded

/the native Canadian from power, and vested all offices of trust and emolu-
ment in the hands of strangers of English origin. The highest posts in
the law were confided to the same class of persons. The functionaries of
the Civil Government, together with the Officers of the Army, composed
a kind of privileged class, occupying the first place in the community,
and excluding the higher class of the natives from society, as well as from
the Government of their own Country. It was not till within a very few
years, as was testified by persons who had seen much of the country, that
this society of civil and military functionaries ceased to exhibit towaids
the higher order of Canadians an exclusiveness of demeanour, which was
more revolting to a sensitive and polite people than the monopoly of power
and profit ; nor was this national favouritism discontinued, until after
repeated complaints and an angry contest, which had excited passions that
concession could not allay. The races had become enemies, ere a tardy
justice was extorted ; and even then, the Government discovered a mode
of distributing its patronage among the Canadians, which was quite as

I offensive to that people as their previous exclusion.

^ It was not long after the Conquest, that another and larger class of
English settlers began to enter the Province. English capital was attracted
to Canada, by the vast quantity and valuable nature of the exportable
produce of the country, and the great facilities for commerce, presented
by the natural means of internal intercourse. The ancient trade of the
country was conducted on a much larger and more profitable scale: and

15

new branches of industry were explored. The active and regular habits
of the English capitalist drove out of all the more profitable kinds of indus-
try their inert and carelesss competitors of the French race ; but in res-
pect of the greater part (almost the whole) of the commerce and manu-
factures of the country, the English cannot be said to have encroached on
the French ; for, in fact, they created employments and profits which had
not previously existed. A few of the ancient race smarted Under the loss
occasioned by the success of English competition : but all felt yet more
acutely, the gradual increase of a class of strangers, in whose hands the
wealth of the country appeared to centre — and whose expenditure and
influence eclipsed those of the class which had previously occupied the
first position in the country. Nor was the intrusion of the English limited
to commercial enterprizes. By degrees, large portions of land were occu-
pied by them : nor did they confine themselves to the unsettled and distant
country of the Townships^ The wealthy capitalist invested his money in
the purchase of Seigniorial properties — and it is estimated, that at the
present moment, full half of the more valuable Seigniories are actually
owned by English proprietors. The Seigniorial tenure is one so little
adapted to our notions of proprietary rights, that the new Seigneur, with-
out consciousness or intention of injustice, in many instances exercised
his rights in a manner which would appear perfectly fair in this country,
but which the Canadian settler reasonably regarded as oppressive. The
English purchaser found an equally unexpected and just cause of com-
plaint in that uncertainty of the laws, which rendered his possession of
property precarious, and in those incidents of the tenure which rendered
its alienation or improvement difficult- But an irritation greater than that
occasioned by the transfer of the large properties, was caused by the com-
petition of the English with the French farmer. The English farmer
carried with him the experience and habits of the most improved agricul-
ture in the world. He settled himself in the Townships bordering on the
Seigniories, and brought a fresh soil and improved cultivation to compete
with the worn-out and slovenly farm of the habitant. He often took the
Very farm which the Canadian settler had abandoned, and by superior
management, made that a source of profit which had only impoverished
his predecessor. The ascendancy which an unjust favouritism had con-
tributed to give to the English race in the Government and the legal pro-
fession, their own superior energy, skill and capital, secured to them ui
every branch of industry. They have developed the resources of the
country — they have constructed or improved its means of communication — t
they have created its internal and foreign commerce. The entire whole-
sale, and a large portion of the retail trade of the Province, with the mos£
profitable and flourishing farms, are now in the hands of this numerical
minority of the population.

In Lower Canada, the mere working class which depends on wages*
though proportionally large in comparison with that to be found in any
other portion of the American Continent, is, according to our ideas, very
small. Competition between persons of different origin in this class has
not exhibited itself till very recently, and is, even now, almost confined to
the cities. The large mass of the labouring papulation are French, in
the employ of English capitalists. The more skilled class of artisans are
generally English'; but in the general run of the more laborious employ-
ments, the French Canadians fully hold their ground against English
rivalry. The emigration which took place a few years ago, brought in a

16

class which entered into more direct competition with the French, in some
kinds of employment, in the towns; but the individuals affected by this
competition were not very many. I do not believe that the animosity
which exists between the working classes of the two origins is the neces-
sary result of a collision of interests, or of a jealousy of the superior suc-
cess of English labour. But national prejudices naturally exercise the
greatest influence over the most uneducated : the difference of language
is less easily overcome — the difference of manners and customs less easily
appreciated. The labourers, whom the emigration introduced, contained
a number of very ignorant, turbulent, and demoralised persons, whose con-
duct and manners alike revolted the well-ordered and courteous natives
of the same class. The working-men naturally ranged themselves on the
side of the educated and wealthy of their own countrymen. When once
engaged in the conflict, their passions were less restrained by education
and prudence — and the national hostility now rages most fiercely between
those whose interests in reality bring them the least in collision.

The two races, thus distinct, have been brought into the same commu-
nity, under circumstances which rendered their contact inevitably produc-
tive of collision. The difference of language, from the first, kept them
asunder. It is not anywhere a virtue of the English race to look with
complacency on any manners, customs or laws, which appear strange to
them; accustomed to form a high estimate of their own superiority, they
take no pains to conceal from others their contempt and intolerance of
their usages. They found the French Canadians filled with an equal
amount of national pride : a sensitive, but inactive pride, which disposes
that people not to resent insult, but rather to keep aloof from those who
would keep them under. Tne French could not but feel the superiority
of English enterprise; they could not shut their eyes to their success in
every undertaking in which they came into contact, and to the constant
superiority which they were acquiring. They looked upon their rivals
with alarm — with jealousy — and finally with hatred. The English repaid
them with a scorn, which soon also assumed the same form of hatred.
The French complained of the arrogance and injustice of the English;
the English accused the French of the vices of a weak and conquered
people, and charged them with meanness and perfidy. The entire mistrust
which the two races have thus learned to conceive of each other's inten-
tions, induces them to put the worst construction on the most innocent
conduct — to judge every word, every act, and every intention unfairly —
to attribute the most odious designs, and reject every overture of kindness
or fairness, as covering secret designs of treachery and malignity.

Religion formed no bond of intercourse and union. It is, indeed, an
admirahle feature of Canadian society, that it is entirely devoid of any
religious dissensions. Sectarian intolerance is not merely not avowed,
but it hardly seems to influence men's feelings. But though the prudence
and liberality of both parties has prevented this fruitful source of animo-
sity from embittering their quarrels, the difference of religion has in fact
tended to keep them asunder. Their Priests have been distinct—they
have not met even in the same Church.

No common education has served to remove and soften the differences
of origin and language. The associations of youth — the sports of child-
hood— and the studies by which the character of manhood is modified, are
| distinct and totally different. In Montreal and Quebec, there are Eng-
lish schools and French schools ; the children in these are accustomed to

17

fight nation against nation — and the quarrels that arise ahi'ong boys in
the streets, usually exhibit a division into English on one side, and Fieneti
on the other.

As they are taught apart, so are their studies different. The literature
with which each is the most conversant, is that of the peculiar language
of each ; and all the idea* which men derive from books, come to each of
them from perfectly different sources. The difference of language in this
respect produces effects quite apart from those which it has on the mere
intercourse of the two races. Those who have reflected on the powerful
influence of language on thought, will perceive in how different a manner
people who speak in different languages are apt to think ; and those who
are familiar with the literature of France, know that the same opinion wilt
be expressed by an English and French writer of the present day, not
merely in, different words, but, in a style so different as to mark utterly
different habits of thought. This difference is very striking in Lower
Canada; it exists, not merely in the books of most influence and repute,
which are, of course, those of the great writers of France and England;
and by which the minds of the respective races are formed, but it is observ-
able in the writings which now issue from the Colonial press. The articles
in tire newspapers of each race, are written in a style as widely different
as those of France and England at present — and the arguments which
convince the one, are calculated to appear utterly unintelligible to the
other.

The difference of language produces misconceptions yet more fatal even
than those which it occasions with respect to opinions: it aggravates the
national animosities, by representing all the events of the day in utterly
different lights. The political misrepresentation of facts is one of the
incidents of a free press in every free country ; but in nations in which all
speak the same language, those who receive a misrepresentation from ohe
side, have generally some means of learning the truth from the other. Li
Lower Canada, however, where the French and English papers represent
adverse opinions, and where no large portion of the community can read
fcoth languages with ease, those who receive the misrepresentation are
rarely able to avail themselves of the means of correction. It is difficult
to conceive the perversity with which misrepresentations are habitually
made, au<J the gross delusions which find currency among the people ;
Ihey thus live in a world of misconceptions — in which each party is set
against the other, not only by diversity of feelings and opinions, but by
an actual belief in an utterly different set of facts.

The differences thus early occasioned by education and language, are
in nowise softened by the intercourse of after-life : their business and
occupations do not bring the two races into friendly contact and co-opera-
tion, but only present them to each other in occasional rivalry. A laudable
emulation has of late induced the French to enter on the field previously
occupied by the English, and to attempt to compete with them in com7
inerce ; but it is much to be lamented, that this did not commence until
the national animpsities had arrived almost at the highest pitch — and that
the competition has been carried on in such a manner as to widen the
pre existing differences. The establishment of the " Banque du Peuple,"
by French capitalists, is an event which may be regarded as a satisfactory
indication of an awakening commercial energy among the French; and
it is, therefore, very much to be regretted, that the success of the new
C

18

enterprise was uniformly promoted, by direct and illiberal appeals to the
national feeelings of the race. Some of the French have lately established
Steam-boats, to compete with the monopoly which a combination of Eng-
lish capitalists had for some time enjoyed on the St. Lawrence ; and small
and somewhat uncomfortable as they were, they were regarded with favour
on account of their superiority in the essential qualities of certainty and
celerity. But this was not considered sufficient to insure their success ;
an appeal was constantly made to the national feelings of the French for
an exclusive preference of the " French" line, and I have known a
French newspaper announce with satisfaction the fact, that on the previ-
day the French steamers to Quebec and LaPrairie had arrived at Montreal
with a great many passengers, and the English with very few. The
English, on the other hand, appealed to exactly the same kind of feelings,
and used to apply to the French steamboats the epithets of " Radical, "
"Rebel," and "Disloyal." The introduction of this kind of national
preference into this department of business, produced a particularly mis-
chievous 'effect, inasmuch as it separated the two races on some of the
few occasions on which they had been previously thrown into each other's
society. They rarely meet at the inns in the cities ; the principal hotels
are almost exclusively filled with English, and with foreign travellers ;
and the French are, for the most part, received at each other's houses,
or in boarding-houses, in which they meet with few English.

Nor do their amusements bring them more in contact. Social inter-
course never existed between the two races in any but the higher classes,
and it is now almost destroyed. I heard of but one house in Quebec, in
which both races met on pretty equal and amicable terms — and this was
mentioned as a singular instance of good sense on the part of the gen-
tleman to whom it belongs. At the commencement of Lord Aylmer's
Administration, an entertainment was given to His Lordship by Mr. Papi-
neau,the Speaker of the House of Assembly. It was generally understood
to be intended as a mark of confidence and good-will towards the Gover-
nor, and of a conciliatory disposition. It was given on a very large scale :
n very great number of persons were present — and of that number, I was
informed by a gentleman who was present, that he and one other were the
only English, except the Governor and his Suite. Indeed, the difference
of manners in the two races, renders a general social intercourse almost
impossible.

A singular instance of national incompatability was brought before my
notice, in an attempt which I made to promote an undertaking, in which
the French were stfel to take a great deal of interest. I accepted the
office of President of the Agricultural Association of the District of Que-
bec, and attended the Show previous to the distribution of the prizes. I
then found that the French farmers would not compete, even on this
neutral ground, with the English. Distinct prizes were given, in almost
every department, to the two races ; and the national ploughing matches
were carried on in separate and distant fields.

While such is their social intercourse, it is not to be. expected that the
animosities of the two races can frequently be softened by the formation
of domestic connexions. During the first period of the possession of the
Colony by the English, intermarriages of the two races were by no means
Uncommon. Rut they are now very rare: and where such unions occur,
they are generally formed with members of the French families, which I
have described as politically, and almost nationally, separated from the
bulk of their own race.

19

1 could mention various slight features in the state of society, which
show the all-pervading and marked division of the races ; hut nothing,
(though it will sound paradoxical,) really proves their entire separation
so much as the rarity, nay, almost total absence, of personal encounters
between the two races. Disputes, of this kmd are almost confined to the
ruder order of people, and seldom proceed to acts of violence. As res-
pects the other classes, social intercourse between the two races is so
limited, that the more prominent or excitable antagonists never meet in
the same room. It came to my knowledge that a gentleman, who was
for some years a most active and determined leader amongst the English
population, had never once been under a private roof with French Cana-
dians of his own rank in life, until he met some at table, on the invitation
of persons attached to my mission, who were in the habit of associating
indifferently with French and English. There are, therefore, no political
personal controversies. The ordinary occasions of collision never occur:
and men must quarrel so publicly or so deliberately, that prudence res-
trains them from commencing, individually, what would probably end in
a general and bloody conflict of numbers. Their mutual fears restrain
personal disputes and riots, even among the lower orders: the French
know and dread the superior physical strength of the English in the
cities — and the English in those places refrain from exhibiting their power,
from fear of the revenge that might be taken on their countrymen, who
are scattered over the rural parishes.

This feeling of mutual forbearance extends so far as to produce an
apparent calm, with respect to public matters, which is calculated to per-
plex a stranger, who has heard much of the animosities of the Province.
No trace of them apj ears in public meetings ; and these take place in every
direction, in the most excited periods, and go off without disturbance,
and almost without dissent. The fact is, that both parties have come to a
tacit understanding, not in any way to interfere with each other on these
occasions — each parly knowing that it would always be in the power of
the other to prevent its meetings. The British party, consequently, have
their meetings ; the French theirs ; and neither disturb the other. The
complimentary Addresses which I received on various occasions, m'arked
the same entire separation — even m a matter in which it might be sup-
posed that party feeling would not be felt, or would, from mere prudence
and propriety, be concealed. I had, from the same places, French and
English Addresses ; and I never found the two races uniting, except in a
few cases, where I met with the names of two or three isolated members
of one origin, who happened to dwell in a commuj^ty almost entirely
composed of the other. The two parties combine for no public object —
they cannot harmonise even in associations of charity. The only public
occasion on which they ever meet is in the Jury-box — and they meet
there only to the utter obstruction of Justice.

The hostility which thus pervades society, was some time growing be-
fore it became of prominent importance in the politics of the Province.
It was inevitable, that such social feelings must end in a deadly political
strife. The French regarded with jealousy the influence, in politics, of
a daily increasing body of the strangers, whom they so much disliked and
dreaded ; the wealthy English were offended at finding, that their pro-
perly gave them no influence over their French dependents, who were
acting under the guidance of leaders of their own race ; and the farmers
and traders of the same race were not long before they began to bear

20

with impatiance their utter political nullity in the midst of the majority
of a population, whose ignorance they contemned, and whose political
views and conduct seemed utterly at variance with their own notions of
the principles and practice of self-government. The superior political
and practical intelligence of the English, cannot he for a moment dis-
puted. The great mass of the Canadian population, who cannot read or,
write, and have found in few of the institutions of their country, even the
elements of political education, were obviously inferior to the English
settlers, of whoai a large proportion had received a considerable amounS
pf education, and had been trained in their own country to take a part in
public business of one kind or another. With respect to the more educated
classes, the supeiiority is not so general or apparent $ indeed, from all the.
information that I could collect, I incline to think, that the greater amount
of refinement — of speculative thought — and of the knowledge that books
can give — is, with some brilliant exceptions, to be found among the
French. But I have no hesitation in stating, even more decidedly, that
the circumstances in which the English have been placed in Lower Canada,
acting on their original political education, have endowed the leaders of
that population with much of that practical sagacity, tact and energy, in
politics, in which, I must say, that the bad institutions of the Colony have,
in my opinion, rendered the leaders of the French deplorably deficient.
That a race, which felt itself thus superior in political activity and intelli-
gence, should submit with patience to the rule of a majority which it could,
not respect, was impossible. At what time and from what particular cause
the hostility between such a majority and such a minority, which was sure
§ooner or later to break out, actually became of paramount importance, it
is difficult to say. The hostility between the Assembly and the British
Government, had long given a tendency to attacks, on the part of the
popular leaders, on the nation to which that Government belonged. It is
said that the appeals to the national pride and animosities of the French,
became more direct and general on the occasion of the abortive attempt
to re-unite Upper and Lower Canada in 1822, which the leaders of the
Assembly viewed or represented as a blow aimed at the institutions of their
Province. The anger of the English was excited by the denunciations,
of themselves, which, subsequently to this period, they were in the habit of
bearing. They had possibly some little sympathy with the members of
the Provincial Government of their own race; and their feelings were,
probably, yet moie strongly excited in favour of the connexion, pX tfee
Colony with Great Britain, which the proceedings of the Assembly appeared
to endanger. But the abuses existing under the Provincial Government,
gave such inducements to remain in opposition to it, that the Representa-
tives of each race continued for a long time to act together against it.—
And as the bulk of the English population in the Townships, and on the
Ottawa, were brought into very little personal contact with the French, 1
am inclined to think that it might have been some time longer, ere the
disputes of origin would have assumed an importance paramount to a\\
others, had not the Assembly come into collision with the whole Knglish
population, by its policy with respect to internal improvements, and to the
old and defective laws, which operated as a bar to the alienation of land,
and to the formation of Associations for commercial purposes.

The English population, an immigrant and enterprising population,
looked on the American provinces as a vast field for settlement and spec-
ulation, and in the common spirit of the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of that

21

continent, regarded it as the chief business of the government, to promote,
by all possible use of its legislative and administrative powers, the increase
of population and the accumulation of property ; they found the laws of
real property exceedingly adverse to the easy alienation of land, which
is, in a new country, absolutely essential to its settlement and improve-
ment ; they found tbe greatest deficiency in the internal communications
of the country, and the utter want of local self-government rendered it
necessary for them to apply to the Assembly for every road or bridge, or
other public work that was needed ; they wished to form themselves
jnto companies for the establishment of banks, and the construction of
railroads and canals, and to obtain the powers necessary for the com-
pletion of such works with funds of their own. — And as the first requisite
for the improvement of the country, they desired that a large proportion
of the revenue should be applied to the completion of that great series of
public works by which it was proposed to render the St. Lawrence and
\he Ottawa navigable throughout their whole extent.

Without going so far as to accuse the Assembly of a deliberate design
to check the settlement and improvement of Lower Canada, it cannot be
denied that they looked with considerable jealousy and dislike on the in-
crease and prosperity of what they regarded as a foreign and hostile race;
they looked on the province as the patrimony of their own race; they
viewed it not as a country to be settled, but as one already settled; and
instead of legislating in the American spirit, and first providing for the
future population of the province, their primary care was, in the spirit of
legislation which prevails in the Old World, to guard the interests and
feelings of the present race of inhabitants, to whom they considered the
new comers as subordinate ; they refused to increase the burthens of the
country by imposing taxes to meet the expenditure required for improve-
ment, and they also refused to direct to that object any of the funds pre-
viously devoted to other purposes. The improvement of the harbour of
Montreal was suspended, from a political antipathy to a leading English
\ merchant who had been the most active of the commissioners, and by
/'whom it had been conducted with the most admirable success. It is but
just to say that some of the works which the Assembly authorised and
encouraged were undertaken on a scale of due moderation, and satisfac-
torily perfected and brought into operation. Others, especially the great
communications which I have mentioned above, the Assembly showed a
great reluctance to promote or even to permit. It is true that there was
considerable foundation for their objections to the plan on which the Legis-
lature of Upper Canada had commenced some of these works, and to the
mode in which it had carried them on ; but the English complained that
instead of profiting by the experience which they might have derived from
this source, the Assembly seemed only to make its objections a pretext
for doing nothing. The applications for banks, railroads, and canals,
were laid on one side until some general measures could be adopted with
regard to such undertakings ; but the general measures thus promised*
were never passed, and the particular enterprises in question were pre-
yented. The adoption of a registry was refused on the alleged ground-
of its inconsistency with the French institutions of the Province, and no,
measure to attain this desirable end, in a less obnoxious mode, was pre-
pared by the leaders of the Assembly. The feudal tenure was supported,
as a mild and just provision for the settlement of a new country ; a kind
of assurance given by a committee of the Assembly, that some steps

22

should be taken to remove the most injurious incidents of the seignor-iai
tenure, produced no practical results; and the enterprises of the English
were still thwarted by the obnoxious laws of the country. In all these
decisions of the Assembly, in its discussions, and in the apparent motives
of its conduct, the English population perceived traces of a desire to re-
press the influx and the success of their race. A measure for imposing
a tax on Emigrants, though recommended by the Home Government,
and warranted by the policy of those neighbouring states, which give the
greatest encouragement to immigration, was argued on such grounds in
the Assembly that it was not unjustly regarded as indicative of an inten-
tion to exclude any further accession to the English population ; and the
industry of the English was thus retarded by this conduct of the Assem-
bly. Some districts, particularly that of the eastern townships, where
the French race has no footing, were seriously injured by the refusal of
necessary improvements ; and the English inhabitants generally regarded
the policy of the Assembly as a plan for preventing any further emigra-
tion to the Province, of stopping the growth of English wealth, and of
rendering precarious the English property already invested or acquired
in Lower Canada.

The Assembly of which they thus complained, and of which they en-
tertained apprehensions so serious, was at the same time in collision with
the executive government. The parly in power, and which, by means
of the Legislative Council, kept the Assembly in check, gladly availed
itself of the discontents of this powerful and energetic minority, ofieiedit
its protection, and undertook the furtherance of its views ; and thus was
cemented the singular alliance between the English population and the
colonial officials, who combined from perfectly different motives, and
with perfectly different objects, against a common enemy. The English
desired reform and liberal measures from the Assembly, which refused
them, while it was urging other reforms and demanding other liberal
measures from the executive government. The Assembly complained of
the oppressive use of the power of the executive ; the English complained
that they, a minority, suffered under the oppressive use to which power
was turned by the French majority. Thus a hold and intelligent demo-
cracy was impelled, by its impatience for liberal measures, joined to its
national antipathies, to make common cause with a government which
was at issue with the majority on the question of popular rights. The
actual conflict commenced by a collision between the executive and the
French majority ; and, as the English population rallied round the go-
vernment, supported its pretensions, and designated themselves by the
appellation of " loyal," the causes of the quarrel were naturally supposed
to be much more simple than they really were; and the extent of the
division which existed among the inhabitants of Lower Canada, the
number and nature of the combatants arrayed on each side, and the irre-
mediable nature of the dispute, were concealed from the public view.

The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry its political ob-
jects into effect by an appeal to arms, brought these hostile races into
general and armed collision. I will not dwell on the melancholy scenes
exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce passions which held
an unchecked sway during the insurrection, or immediately after its sup-
pression. It is not dfficult to conceive how greatly the evils, which I
have described as previously existing, have been aggravated by the war;
how terror and revenge nourished, in each portion of the population, a

o*

bitter and irreconcileable hatred to each other, and to the institutions of
the country. The French population, who had for some time exercised
a great and increasing power through the medium of the House of As-
sembly, found their hopes unexpectedly prostrated in the dust. The
physical force which they had vaunted was called into action, and proved
to be utterly inefficient. The hope of recovering their previous ascend-
ancy under a constitution similar to that suspended almost ceased to ex-
ist. Removed from all actual share in the government of the country,
they brood in silence over the memory of their fallen countrymen, of
their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their extinguished ascend-
ancy, and of their humbled nationality. To the government and the
English they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish against both an indiscri-
minating and eternal animosity. Nor have the English inhabitants for-
gotten in their triumph the terror with which they suddenly saw themselves
surrounded by an insurgent majority, and the incidents which alone ap-
peared to save them from the unchecked domination of the antagonists.
They find themselves still a minority in the midst of a hostile and organ-
ized people; apprehensions of secret conspiracies and sanguinary designs
haunt them unceasingly, and their only hope of safety is supposed to rest
on systematically terrifying and disabling the French, and in preventing
a majority of that race from ever again being predominant in any portion
of the Legislature of that Province. I describe in strong terms the feel-
ings which appear to me to animate each portion of the population; and
the picture which I draw represents a state of things so little familiar to
the personal experience of the people of this country, that many will
probably regard it as the work of mere imagination ; but I feel confident
that the accuracy and moderation of my description will be acknowledged
by all who have seen the state of society in Lower Canada during the
last year. Nor do I exaggerate the inevitable constancy any more than
the intensity of this animosity. Never again will the present generation
of French Canadians yield a loyal submission to a British government ;
never again will the English population tolerate the authority of a House
of Assembly in which the French shall possess or even approximate to a
majority.

Nor is it simply the working of representative government which is
placed out of question by the present disposition of the two races ; every
institution which requires for its efficiency a confidence in the mass of the
people, or co-operation between its classes, is practically in abeyance in
Lower Canada. The militia, on which the main defence of the Province
against external enemies, and the discharge of many of the functions of
internal police have hitherto depended, is completely disorganized. A
muster of that force would, in some districts, be the occasion for quarrels
between the races, and in the greater part of the country the attempting
to. arm or employ it would be merely arming the enemies of the govern-
ment. The course of justice is entirely obstructed by the same cause; a
just decision in any political case is not to be relied upon ; even the judi-
cial bench is, in the opinion of both races, divided into two hostile sections
of French and English, from neither of whom is justice expected by the
mass of the hostile party. The partiality of grand and petty juries is a
matter of certainty ; each race relies on the vote of its countrymen to
save it harmless from the'law, and the mode of challenging allows of such
an exclusion of the hostile party, that the French offender may make sure
of, and the English hope for a favourable jury, and a consequent acquittal,

u

This state of things, and the consequent impunity of political offences,
are distinctly admitted by both sides. The trial of the murderers of Chart-
rand has placed this disposition of the French jurors in a most glaring
light ; the notes of the Chief Justice in this case were transmitted by me
lb the Secretary of State ; and a perusal of them will satisfy every candid
and well-ordered mind that a base and cruel assassination, committed
without a single circumstance of provocation or palliation, was brought
home by evidence which no man ever pretended to doubt, against the
prisoners, whom the jury nevertheless acquitted. The duty of giving
this dishonest verdict had been most assiduously and shamefully incul-
cated by the French press before the trial came on ; the jurors are said
to have been kept for some time previous in the hands of zealous parti-
sans, whose business it was not only to influence their inclination, but to
stimulate their courage ; the array of the leaders of the party who were
present at the trial was supposed to be collected for the same purpose ;
and it is notorious that the acquittal was celebrated at public entertain-
ments, to which the jurors were invited in order that they might be thanked
for their verdict.

But the influence of this animosity does not obstruct the course of
justice in political cases alone. An example of obstruction of ordinary
criminal justice lately occurred at Quebec. A person had been, during
a previous term, indicted and tried for some offence seriously affecting
his moral character. The charge had been supported by a witness whom
the jury considered perjured, and the accused had been acquitted. Having
reason to believe that the witness had been instigated by a neighbour, the
acquitted person indicted this neighbour for subornation of perjury, and
brought the witness, who had formerly appeared against himself, to provS
the falsehood of his previous evidence, and the fact of his subornation.—
The proof of subornation appears to have rested, in some particulars, too
much on the unsupported evidence of this witness ; the jury differed in
opinion, one portion of them helieving the guilt of the accused to be on
the whole satisfactory established, the other refusing to believe that part
of the case which depended solely on the evidence of a man who came
into court to swear to the fact of his own previous perjury. This was A
difference of opinion which might naturally divide a jury ; but as all the
parties were French, and as there is nothing in the circumstances which
marks this as a case in which feelings of politics or origin could be sup-
posed to operate, it will, I imagine, appear singular that the jury, being
composed nearly equally of French and English, all the French were on
one side, all the English on the other. After long discussion the jury
came into court, and declared their inability to agree ; and the foreman,
on being told by the Judge that they must agree, answered, that they were
an equal number of French and English, and consequently never could
agree. In the end they did not, and after being locked up for twelve
hours, they were discharged without giving a verdict; so that even in a
case in which no question of party or of race is concerned, the animosity
of the races, nevertheless, appears to present an insurmountable barrier
to the impartial administration of justice.

In such a state of feelings the course of civil government is hopelessly
suspended. No confidence can be felt in the stability of any existing
institution, or the security of person and property. It cannot occasion
surprise that this state of things should have destroyed the tranquillity and
happiness of families, that it should have depreciated the value of property,

25

and that it should have arrested the improvement and settlement of the
country. The alarming decline of the value of landed property was at-
tested to me by some of the principal proprietors of the Province. The
continual and progressive decrease of the revenue, though in some degree
attributable to other causes, indicates a diminution of the wealth of the
country. The staple export trade of the Province, the timber trade, has
not suftere J ; but instead of exporting grain, the Province is now obliged
to import for its own consumption. The influx of emigrants, once so
considerable, has very greatly diminished. In 1882, the number of emi-
grants who landed at the port of Quebec, amounted to 52,000; in 1837,
it had fallen to a few more than 22,000; and in 1838, it did not amount
to 5,000. Insecurity begins to be so strongly felt by the loyal inhabitants
of the Seigniories, that many of theni are compelled, by fear or necessity,
to qoit their occupations, and seek refuge in the cities. If the present
state of things continue, the most enterprising and wealthy capitalists of
the Province will thus, in a short time, be driven from the seats of their
present industry, f^**000*

Nor does ther<r1ippear to be the slightest chance of putting an end to
this animosity during the present generation. Passions inflamed during
so long a period cannot speedily be calmed. The state of education
which I have previously described as placing the peasantry entirely at
the mercy of agitators, the total absence of any class of persons, or any
organization of authority that could counteract this mischievous influence,
and the serious decline in the district of Montreal of the influence of the
clergy, concur in rendering it absolutely impossible for the Government
to produce any better state of feeling among the French population. It
is even impossible to impress on a people so circumstanced the salutary
dread of the power of Great Britain, which the presence of a large mili-
tary force in the Province might be expected to produce. 1 have been
informed by witnesses so numerous and so trustworthy, that 1 cannot doubt
the correctness of their statements, that the peasantry were generally
ignorant of the large amount of force which was sent into their country
last year. The newspapers that circulate among them had informed
them that Great Britain had no troops to send out; that in order to pro-
duce an impression on the minds of the country people, the same regi-
ments were marched backwards and forwards in different directions, and
represented as additional arrivals from home. This explanation was pro-
mulgated among the people by the agitators of each village ; and I have no
doubt that the mass of the habitants really believed that the government
was endeavouring to impose on them by this species of fraud. It is a
population with whom authority has no means of contact or explanation.
It is difficult even to ascertain what amount of influence the ancient lead-
ers of the French party continue to possess. The name of Mr. Papineau
is still cherished by the people; and the idea is current that, at the ap-
pointed time, he will return at the head of an immense army, and re-
establish " La Nation Canadienne." But there is great reason to doubt
whether his name be not used as a mere watchword ; whether the people
are not in fact running entirely counter to his counsels and policy ; and
whether they are not really under the guidance of separate petty agitators,
who have no plan but that of a senseless and reckless determination to
show' in every way their hostility to the British government and Eng-
lish race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are equally unintelligible-— *
D

26

Some vague expectation of absolute independence still seems to delude1
them. The national vanity, which is a remarkable ingredient in their
character, induces many to flatter themselves with the idea of a Canadian
republic; the sounder information of others has led them to perceive that
a separation from Great Britain must be followed by a junction with the
great confederation on their southern frontier. But they seem apparently
reckless of the consequences, provided they can wreak their vengeance
on the English. There is no people against which early associations and
every conceivable difference of manners and opinions, have implanted in
the Canadian mind a more ancient and rooted national antipathy than
that which they feel against the people of the United States. Their more
discerning leaders feel that their chances of preserving their nationality
would be greatly diminished by an incorporation with the United States;
and recent symptoms of anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well known
to the Canadian population, have generated a very general belief that
their religion, which even they do not accuse the British party of assail-
ing, would find little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none
even of these considerations weigh against their present all-absorbing
hatred of the English ; and I am persuaded that they would purchase
vengeance and a momentary triumph, by the aid of any enemies, or sub-
mission to any yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of their
ancient antipathy to the Ameiicans is now admitted even by those who
most strongly denied it during the last spring, and who then asserted that
an American war would as completely unite the whole population against
the common enemy as it did in 1 tt 13. My subsequent experience leaves
no doubt in my mind that the views which were contained in my despatch
of the 9th of August are perfectly correct; and that an invading Ameri-
can army might rely on the co-operation of almost the entire French
population of Lower Canada.

In the despatch above referred to I also described the state of feeling
among the English population, nor can [ encourage a hope that that por-
tion of the community is at all more inclined to any settlement of the pre-
sent quarrel that would leave any share of power to the hostile race. —
Circumstances having thrown the English into the ranks of the govern-
ment, and the folly of their opponents having placed them, on the other
hand, in a state of permanent collision with it, the former possess the ad-
vantage of having the force of government and the authority of the laws
on their side in the present stage of the contest. Their exertion's during
the recent troubles have contributed to maintain the supremacy of the law
and the continuance of the connection with Great Britain; but it would
in my opinion be dangerous to rely on the continuance of such a state of
feeling as now prevails among them, in the event of a different policy
being adopted by the Imperial Government. Indeed the prevalent sen-
timent among them is one of anything but satisfaction with the course
which has been long pursued with reference to Lower Canada by the
British Legislature and Executive. The calmer view which distant
spectators are enabled to take of the conduct of the two parties, and the
disposition which is evinced to make a fair adjustment of the contending
claims, appear iniquitous and injurious in the eyes of men who think that
they alone have any claim to the favour of that government by which
they alone have stood fast. They complain loudly and bitterly of the
whole course pursued by the Imperial Government with respect to the
quarrel of the two races, as having been founded on an utter ignorance

Or disregard of the real question at issue, as having fostered the mischiev-
ous pretensions of French nationality, and as having by the vacillation
and inconsistency which marked it, discouraged loyalty and fomented
rebellion. Every measure of clemency or even justice towards their
opponents they regard with jealousy, as indicating a disposition towards,
that conciliatory policy which is the subject of their angry recollection ;
for they feel that being a minority, any return to the due course of con-
stitutional government would again subject them to a French majority;
and to this I am persuaded they would never peaceably submit. They
do not hesitate to say that they will not tolerate much longer the being
made the sport of parties at home, and that if the mother country forget
what is due to the loyal and enterprising men of her own race, they must
protect themselves. In the significant language of one of their own ablest
advocates, they assert that, "Lower Canada must be English, at the
expense, if necessary, of not being British."

I have, in despatches of a later date than that to which I have had
occasion so frequently to refer, called the attention of the home govern-
ment to the growth of this alarming state of feeling among the English
population. The course of the late troubles, and the assistance which
the French insurgents derived from some citizens of the United States,
have caused a most intense exasperation among the Canadian loyalists
against, the American government and people. Their papers have teemed
with the most unmeasured denunciations of the good faith of the autho-
rities, of the character, and morality of the people, and of the political
institutions of the United States. Yet, under this surface of hostility, it
is easy to detect a strong under current of an exactly contrary feeling.—
As the general opinion of the American people became more apparent
during the course of the last year, the English of Lower Canada were
surprised to find how strong, in spite of the first burst-of sympathy, with
a people supposed to be struggling for independence, was the real sym-
pathy of their republican neighbours with the great objects of the mi-
nority. Without abandoning their attachment to their mother country,
they have begun, as men in a state of uncertainty are apt to do, to calcu-
late the probable consequences of a separation, if it should unfortunately
occur, and be followed by an incorporation with the United States. In
spite of the shock which it would occasion their feelings, they undoubt-
edly think that they should find some compensation in the promotion of
their interests ; they believe that the influx of American emigration would
speedily place the English race in a majority; they talk frequently and
loudly of what has occurred in Louisiana, where, by means which they
utterly misrepresent, the end nevertheless of securing an English predom-
inance over a French population, has undoubtedly been attained ; they as-
sert very confidently that the Americans would make a very speedy and
decisive settlement of the pretensions of the French ; and they believe
that, after the first shock of an entirely new political state had been got
over, they and their posterity would share in that amazing progress, and
that great material prosperity which every day's experience shows them
is the lot of the people of the United States. I do not believe that such
a feeling has yet sapped their strong allegiance to the British Empire ;
but their allegiance is founded on their deep-rooted attachment to British
as distinguished from French institutions. And if they find that that
authority which they have maintained against its recent assailants is to
be exerted in such a manner as to subject them again to what they call

28

a French dominion, I feel perfectly confident that they would attempt to
avert the result by courting, on any terms, an union with an Anglo-Saxon
people.

Such is the lamentable and hazardous state of things, produced by the
conflict of races, which has so long divided the Province of Lower Canada,
and which has assumed the formidable and irreconcilable character which
I have depicted. In describing the nature of this conflict, I have specified
the causes in which it originated ; and though I have mentioned the con-
duct and constitution of the Colonial Government, as modifying the cha-
racter of the struggle, I have not attributed to political causes a 5tate of
things which would, I believe, under any political institutions, have resulted
from the very composition of society. A jealousy between two races, so
long habituated to regard each other with hereditary enmity, and so dif-
fering in habits, in language, and in laws, would have been inevitable
under any form of Government. That liberal institutions, and a prudent
policy, might have changed the character of the struggle, I have no doubt —
but they could not have prevented it : they could only have softened its
character, and brought it more speedily to a more decisive and peaceful
conclusion. Unhappily, however, the system of Government pursued in
Lower Canada, has been based on the policy of perpetuating that very
separation of the races, and encouraging these very notions of conflicting
nationalities which it ought to have been the first and chief care of Gov-
ernment to check and extinguish. From the period of the conquest to
the present time, the conduct of the Government has aggravated the evil ;
and the origin of the present extreme disorder may be found in the insti-
tutions by which the character of the Colony was determined.

There are two modes by which a Government may deal with a con-
quered territoiy. The first course open to it is that of respecting the rights
and nationality of the actual occupants ; of recognizing the existing laws,
and preserving established institutions; of giving no encouragement to
the influx of the conquering people — and, without attempting any change
>n the elements of the community, merely incorporating the Province
under the general authority of the central Government. The second is
that of treating the conquered territory as one open to the conquerors; of
encouraging their influx; of regarding the conquered race as entirely
subordinate ; and of endeavouring, as speedily and as rapidly as possible,
to assimilate the character and institutions of its new Subjects to those of
the great body of its Empire. In the case of an old and long-settled
country — in which the land is appropriated — in which little room is left
for colonization — and in which the race of the actual occupants must
continue to constitute the bulk of the future population of the Province —
policy, as well as humanity, render the well-being of the conquered peo-
ple the first care of a just Government, and recommend the adoption of
the first-mentioned system ; but in a new and unsettled country, a provi-
dent legislator would regard, as his first object, the interests not only of
the few individuals who happen at the moment to inhabit a portion of the
soil, but those of that comparatively vast population by which he may
reasonably expect that it will be filled ; he would form his plans with a
view of attracting and nourishing that future population — and he would,
therefore, establish those institutions which would be most acceptable to
the race by which he hoped to colonize the country. The course which
I have described as best suited to an old and settled country, would have
been impossible in the American continent, unless the conquering state

-I

29

meant to renounce the immediate use of the unsettled lands of the Pro-1
vince ; and in this case, such a course would have been additionally unad-
visable — unless the British Government were prepared to abandon, to the
scanty population of French whom it found in Lower Canada, not merely
the possession of the vast extent of rich soil which that Province contains,
but also the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and all the facilities for trade
which the entrance of that great Iliver commands.

In the first regulations adopted by the British Government, for, the set-
tlement of the Canadas, in the Proclamation of 1763. and the Commission
of the Governor-in-Chief of the Province of Quebec, in the offers by
which Officers and Soldiers of the British Army, and settlers from the
other North American Provinces, were tempted to accept grants of land
in the Canadas, we perceive very clear indications of an intention of adopt-
ing the second, and the wiser of the two systems. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the conquest of Canada was almost immediately followed by the
commencement of those discontents, which ended in the independence of
the United Provinces. From that period, the Colonial policy of this
country appears to have undergone a complete change. To prevent the
further dismemberment of the Empire, became the primary object with
our Statesmen ; and an especial anxiety was exhibited, to adopt every
expedient which appeared calculated to prevent the remaining North
American Colonies from following the example of successful revolt. —
Unfortunately, the distinct national character of the French inhabitants
of Canada, and their ancient hostility to the people of New England,
presented the easiest and most obvious line of demarcation. To isolate
the inhabitants of the British from those of the revolted Colonies, became
the policy of the Government: and the nationality of the French Cana-
dians was therefore cultivated, as a means of perpetual and entire sepa-
ration from their neighbours.* Jt seems also to have been considered
the policy.of the British Government to govern its Colonies by means of

* This policy was not abandoned even at so late a period as the year 181G ; as will appear by
the following Despatch from Lord Bathurst to the Governor of Lower Canada:

" Downing Street, July 1, 1816.

•'Sir, — You are, no doubt, aware of the inquiries which have been made in the Province, as to
the practicability of leaving in a state of nature that part of the frontier which lies between the
Lake Champlaiu and Montreal ; and you have, no doubt, had under your review the report of the
Surveyor General, on this subject, which was enclosed in Sir Gordon Drummond's Despateh of
21st April, 1816, No. 119. With the opinion which His Majesty's Government entertains upon
this subject, it cannot but be a matter of regret to think, that any settlements should have been
made in the Districts of Hemingford, Sherrington, Goodmanchester, or Hinchinbrook. But at
the same time I cannot recommend the dispossession of the Settlers, at the expense which must
result from the purchase of the lands which they have cleared, and the improvements which
they have made upon them, unless indeed that purchase could be effected by an adequate assign-
ment of other waste lands of the Crown in other quarters. I must confine myself, therefore,
to instructing you to abstain altogether from making, hereafter, any grants in these Districts,
and to use every endeavour to induce those who have received grants there, and have not yet.
proceeded to the cultivation of them, to accept uncleared lands in other Districts, more distant
from the frontier of the United States. In some cases, where the lands have been long granted,
they must, I apprehend, under the usual conditions of the grants, have become resumable by
the Crown ; and in such case you can have no difficulty in preventing their cultivation ; and
the expediency of making other grants, in lieu of those resumed, will depend upon the par-
ticular circumstances of each individual case.

" It is also very desirable that you should, as far as lies in your power, prevent the extension
of roads in the direction of those particular Districts beyond the limits of that division of the
Province referred to in the plan of the Surveyor General as being generally cultivated ; and
if any means should present themselves of letting those which have been already made, fall into
decay, you will best comply with .the views of His Majesty's Government, and materially contri-
bute to the future security of the Province, by their adoption.

" I have the honour, Sec.

(Signed) " BATHURST.

"Lieutenant General Sir J. C. Sherbrooke, &c."

30

division : and to break them down as much as possible, into petty isolated
communities — incapable of combination — and possessing no sufficient
strength for individual resistance to the Empire. Indications of such
designs are to be found in many of the acts of the British Government,
with respect to the North American Colonies. In 1775, instructions were
sent from England, directing that all grants of land within the Province
of Quebec, then comprising Upper and Lower-Canada, were to be made
in .Fie/and Seigniory; and even the grants to the Refugee Loyalists,
and Officers and Privates of the Colonial Corps, promised in 178G, were
ordered to be made on the same tenure. In no instance was it more sin-
gularly exhibited than in the condition annexed to the grants of land in
Prince Edward's Island, by which it was stipulated, that the Island was
to be settled by tv foreign Protestants" — as if they were to be foreign, in
order to separate them from the people of New England : and Protestants,
in order to keep them apart from the Canadian and Acadian Catholics.
It was part of the same policy to separate the French of Canada from
the British emigrants — and to conciliate the former by the retention of
their language, laws and religious institutions. For this purpose, Canada
was afterwards divided into two Provinces: the settled portion being allot-
ted to the French, and the unsettled being destined to become the seat of
British colonization. Thus, instead of availing itself of the means which
the extent and nature of the Province afforded, for the gradual introduc-
tion of such an English population info its various parts as might have
easily placed the French in a minority, the Government deliberately con-
stituted the French into a majority, and recognised and strengthened
their distinct national character. Had the sounder policy of making the
Province English, in all its institutions, been adopted from the first, and
steadily persevered in, the French would probably have been speedily
outnumbered, and the beneficial operation of the free institutions of Eng-
land would never have been impeded by the aniinosties of origin.

Not only, however, did the government adopt the unwise course of
dividing Canada, and forming in one of its divisions a French commu-
nity, speaking the French language, and retaining French institutions,
but it did not even carry this consistently into effect ; for at the same
time provision was made for encouraging the emigration, of English into
the very Province which was said to be assigned to the French. Even
the French institutions were not extended over the whole of Lower Ca-
nada. The civil law of France, as a whole, and the legal provision for
the Catholic clergy, were limited to the portion of the country then set-
tled by the French, and comprised in the seignories; though some pro-
vision was made for the formation of new seignories, almost the whole of
the then unsettled portion of the Province was formed into townships, in
which the law of England was partially established, and the Protestant
religion alone endowed. Thus two populations of hostile origin and
different characters were brought into juxta-position under a common
government, but tinder different institutions; each was taught to cherish
its own language, laws, and habits, and each, at the same time, if it moved
beyond its original limits, was brought under different institutions, and
associated with a different people. The unenterprising character of the
French population, and, above all, its attachment to its church (for the
enlargement of which, in proportion to the increase or diffusion of the
Catholic population,*very inadequate provision was made), have produced
the effect of confining it within its ancient limits. But the English were

31

attracted into the seignories, and especially into the cities, by the faciii-
ties of commerce afforded by the great rivers. To have effectually given
the policy of retaining French institutions and a French population in
Lower Canada a fair chance of success, no other institutions should have
been allowed, and no other race should have received any encouragement
to settle therein. The Province should have been set apart to be wholly
French, if it was not to be rendered completely English. The attempt
to encourage English emigration into a community, of which the French
character was still to be preserved, was an error winch planted the seeds
of a contest of races in the very constitution of the colony ; this was an
error, I mean, even on the assumption that it was possible to exclude the
English race from French Canada. But it was quite impossible to ex-
clude the English race from any part of the North American continent.
It will be acknowledged by every one who has observed the progress of
Anglo-Saxon colonization in America, that sooner or later the English
race was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they
predominate already, by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise,
and wealth. The error, therefore, to which the present contest must be
attributed is the vain endeavour to preserve a French Canadian nation-
ality in the midst of Anglo-American colonies and states.

That contest has arisen by degrees. The scanty number of the Eng-
lish who settled in Lower Canada, during the earlier period of our possession,
put out of the question any ideas of rivalry between the races. Indeed,
until the popular principles of English institutions were brought effectually
into operation, the paramount authority of the Government left little room
for dispute among any but the few who contended for its favours. It was
not until the English had established a vast trade, and accumulated con-
siderable wealth— until a great part of the landed property of the Province
was vested in their hands — until a large English population was found in
the Cities, had scattered itself over large portions of the country, and had
formed considerable communities in the Townships — and not until the
development of representative Government had placed substantial power
in the hands of the people — that that people divided itself into races,
arrayed against each other in intense and enduring animosity.

The errors of the government did not cease with that to which I have
attributed the origin of this animosity. The defects of the colonial con-
stitution necessarily brought the executive government into collision with
the people ; and the disputes of the government and the people called
into action the animosities of race ; nor has the policy of the government
obviated the evils inherent in the constitution of the colony, and the com-
position of society. It has done nothing to repair its original error, by
making the Province English. Occupied in a continual conflict with
the Assembly, successive Governors and their councils have overlooked,
in great measure, the real importance of the feud of origin ; and the
Imperial Government, far removed from opportunities of personal obser-
vation of the peculiar state of society, has shaped its policy so as to ag-
gravate the disorder. In some instances it has actually conceded the
mischievous pretensions of nationality, in order to evade popular claims;
as in attempting to divide the Legislative Council, and the patronage of
government, equally between the two races, in order to avoid the demands
for an elective council arid a responsible executive : sometimes it has, for
a while, pursued the opposite course. A policy founded upon imperfect
information, and conducted by continually changing hands, has exhibited

32

to the colony a system of vacillation which was in fact no system at all.
The alternate concessions to the contending races have only irritated
both, impaired the authority of government, and, by keeping alive the
hopes of a French Canadian nationality, counteracted the influences
which might, ere this, have brought the quarrel to its natural and neces-
sary termination. It is impossible to determine precisely the respective
effects of the social and political causes. The struggle between the go-
vernment and the Assembly has aggravated the animosities of race ; and
the animosities of race have rendered the political dirference irreconcil-
able. No remedy can be efficient that does not operate upon both evils.
At the root of the disorders of Lower Canada, lies the conflict of the two
races, which compose its population ; Until this is settled, no good go-
vernment is practicable ; for whether the political institutions be reformed
or left unchanged, whether the powers of the government be entrusted" to
the majority or the minority, we may rest assured that while the hostility
of the races continues, whichever of them is entrusted with power will
use it for partial purposes.

I have described the contest between the French and English races in
Lower Canada with minuteness, because it was my wish to produce a
complete and general conviction of the prominent importance of that
struggle, when we are taking into consideration the causes of those dis-
orders which have so grievously afflicted the Province. I have not, how-
ever, during the course of my preceding remarks, been able to avoid
alluding to other causes, which have greatly contributed to occasion the
existing state of things; and I have specified among these the defects of
the constitution, and the errors arising out of the system of government.
It is, indeed, impossible to believe that the assigned causes of the struggle
between the government and the majority have had no effect, even though
we may believe that they have had much less than the contending par-
ties imagined. It is impossible to observe the great similarity of the con-
stitutions established in all our North American Provinces, and the strik-
ing tendency of all to terminate in pretty nearly the same result, without
entertaining a belief that some defect in the form of government, and
some erroneous principle of administration, have been common to all ;
the hostility of the races being palpably insufficient to account for all the
evils which have affected Lower Canada, inasmuch as nearly the same
results have been exhibited amon^; the homogeneous population of the
other Provinces. It is but too evident that Lower Canada, or the two
Can-adas, have not alone exhibited repeated conflicts between the execu-
tive and the popular branches of the Legislature. The representative
body of Upper Canada was, before the late election, hostile to the policy
of the government; the most serious discontents have only recently been
calmed in Prince Edward's Island and New Brunswick ; the government
is still, I believe, in a minority in the lower house in Nova Scotia; and
the dissensions of Newfoundland are hardly less violent than those of
the Canadas. It may fairly be said that the natural state of govern-
ment in all these colonics is that of collision between the executive and
the representative body. In all of them the administration of public
affairs is habitually confided to those who do not co-operate harmoniously
with the popular branch of the legislature; and the government is con-
stantly proposing measures which the majority of the Assembly reject,
and refusing its assent to bills which that body has passed.

33

' A state of things, so different from the working of any successful ex*
periment of representative government appears to indicate a deviation
from sound constitutional principles or practice. Though occasional col-
lisions between the Crown and the House of Commons have occurred in
this country since the establishment of our constitution at the revolution
of 1688, they have been rare and transient. A state of frequent and
lasting collisions appears almost identical with one of convulsion and
anarchy ; and its occurrence in any country is calculated to perplex us
as to the mode In which any government can be carried on therein, with-
out an entire evasion of popular controul. But, when we examine into
the system of government in these colonies, it would almost seem as if
the object of those by whom it was established, had been the combining
of apparently popular institutions with an utter absence of all efficient
controul of the people over their rulers. Representative Assemblies were
established on the basis of a very wide and, in some cases, almost univer-
sal suffrage ; the annual meeting of these bodies was secured by positive
enactment, and their apparent attributes were locally nearly as extensive
as those of the English House of Commons. At the same time, the
Crown almost entirely relied on its territorial resources, and on duties
imposed by Imperial acts, prior to the introduction of the representative
system, for carrying on the government, without securing the assent of
the representative body, either to its policy, or to the persons by whom
that policy was to be administered.

It was not until some years after the commencement of the present
century, that the population of Lower Canada began to understand the
representative system which had been extended to them, and that the
Assembly evinced any inclination to make use of its powers. Immedi-
ately, however, upon its so doing, it found how limited those powers were,
and entered upon a struggle to obtain the authority which analogy pointed
out as inherent in a representative assembly. Its freedom of speech im-
mediately brought it into collision with the Governor; and the practical
working of the Assembly commenced by its principal leaders being thrown
into prison. In the course of time, however, the Government was induced,
by its necessities, to accept the Assembly's offer to raise an additional
revenue by fresh taxes ; and the Assembly thus acquired a certain control
over the levying and appropriation of a portion of the public revenue.
From that time until the final abandonment in 18S2 of every portion of
the reserved revenue, excepting the casual and territorial funds, an un-
ceasing contest was carried on, in which the Assembly, making use of
every power which it gained for the purpose of gaining more, acquired,
step by step, an entire control over the whole revenue of the country.

I pass thus briefly over the events which have heretofore been consi-
dered the principal features of the Canadian controversy, because, as the
contest has ended in the concession of the financial demands of the As-
sembly, and the admission by the Government of the impropriety of at-
tempting to wtihhold any portion of the public revenues from its control,
that contest can now be regarded as of no importance, except as account-
ing for the exasperation and suspicion which survived it. Nor am I in-
clined to think that the disputes which subsequently occurred are to be
attributed entirely to the operation of mere angry feelings. A substantial
cause of contest yet remained. The Assembly after it had obtained en-
tire control over the public revenues, still found itself deprived of all voice

34

in the choice or even designation of the persons in whose administration
of affairs it could feel confidence. All the administrative power of
Goverment remained entirely free from its influence; and though Mr.
Papineau appears by his own conduct to have deprived himself of that
influence in the Government which he might have acquired, I must attri-
bute the refusal of a civil list to the determination of the Assembly not to
give up its only means of subjecting the functionaries of Government to
any responsibility.

The powers for which the Assembly contended appear, in both instances,
to be such as it was perfectly justified in demanding. It is difficult to
conceive what could have heen their theory or government who imagined,
that in any colony of England a body invested with the name and char-
acter of a representative assembly could be deprived of any of those powers
which, in the opinion of Englishmen, are inherent in a popular legislature.
It was a vain delusion to imagine that by mere limitations in the Consti-
tional Act, or an exclusive system of government, a body, strong in the
consciousness of wielding the public opinion of the majority, could re-
gard certain portions of the Provincial revenues as sacred from its control,
could confine itself to the mere business of making laws, and look on as
a passive or indifferent spectator, while those laws were carried into effect
or evaded, and the whole business of the country was conducted by men,
in whose intentions or capacity it had not the slightest confidence. Yet
such was the limitation placed on the authority of the Assembly of Lower
Canada; it might refuse or pass laws, vote or withhold supplies, but it
could exercise no influence on the nomination of a single servant of the
Crown. The executive council, the law officers, and whatever heads of
departments are known to the administrative system of the Province,
were placed in power, without any regard to the wishes of the people or
their representatives ; nor indeed are there wanting instances in which a
mere hostility to the majority of the Assembly elevated the most incom-
petent persons to posts of honour and trust. However decidedly the As-
sembly might condemn the policy of the government, the persons who
had advised that policy, retained their offices and their power of giving
bad advice. If a law was passed after repeated conflicts, it had to be
carried into effect by those who had most strenuously opposed it. The
wisdom of adopting the true principle of representative government, and
facilitating the management of public affairs, by entrusting it to the per-
sons who have the confidence of the representative body, has never been
recognised in the government of the North American Colonies. All the
officers of government were independent of the Assembly ; and that body
which had nothing to say to their appointment, was left to get on as it
best might, with a set of public functionaries, whose paramount feeling
may not unfairly be said to have been one of hostility to itself.

A body of holders of office thus constituted, without reference to the
people or their representatives, must in fact, from the very nature of
colonial government, acquire the entire direction of the affairs of the
Province. A Governor, arriving in a colony in which he almost inva-
riably has had no previous acquaintance with the state of parties, or the
character of individuals, is compelled to throw himself almost entirely
upon those whom he finds placed in the position of his official advisers.
His first acts must necessarily be performed, and his first appointments
made, at their suggestion. And as these first acts and appointments give
a character to his policy, he is generally brought thereby into immediate

35

ttolHsion with the other parties in the country, and thrown into morft
complete dependence upon the official party and its friends. Thus, a
Governor of Lower Canada has almost always been brought into collision
with the Assembly, which his advisers regard as their enemy. Jn the
course of the contest in which he was thus involved, the provocations
which he received from the Assembly, and ihe light in which their con-
duct was represented by those who alone had any access to him, natu-
rally imbued him with many of their antipathies; his position compelled
him to seek the support of some party against the Assembly ; and his
feelings and his necessities thus combined to induce him to bestow his
patronage and to shape his measures to promote the interests of the party
on which he was obliged to lean. Thus, every successive year consoli-
dated and enlarged the strength of the ruling party. Fortified by family
connection, and the common interest felt by all who held, and all who
desired, subordinate offices, that party was thus erected into a solid and
permanent power, controlled by no responsibilty, subject to no serious
change, exercising over the whole government of the Province an autho-
rity utterly independent of the people and its representatives, and pos-
sessing the only means of influencing either the government at home, or
the colonial representative of the Crown.

This entire separation of the legislative and executive powers of a state,
is the natural error of governments desirous of being free from the check
of representative institutions. Since the revolution of 1688, the stability
of the English constitution has been secured by that wise principle of our
government which has vested the direction of the national policy, and
the distribution of patronage, in the leaders of the parliamentary majo-
rity. However partial the Monarch might be to particular ministers, or
however he might have personally committed himself to their policy, he
has invariably been constrained to abandon both, as soon as the opinion
of the people has been irrevocably pronounced against them through the
medium of the House of Commons. The practice of carrying on a
representative government on a different principle seems to be the rock
on which continental imitations of the British constitution have invariably
split; and the French revolution of 1830 was the necessary result of an
attempt to uphold a ministry with which no Parliament could be got to
act in concert. It is difficult to understand how any English statesmen
could have imagined that representative and irresponsible government
could be successfully combined. There seems, indeed, to be an idea that
the character of representative institutions ought to be thus modified in
colonies ; that it is an incident of colonial dependence, that the officers
of government should be nominated by the Crown, without any reference
to the wishes of the community, whose interests are entrusted to their
keeping. It has never been very clearly explained what are the impe-
rial interests, which require this complete nullification of representative
government. But, if there be such a necessity, it is quite clear that a
representative government in a colony must be a mockery, and a source
of confusion. For those who support this system have never yet been
able to devise, or to exhibit in the practical working of colonial govern-
ment, any means for making so complete an abrogation of political influ-
ence palatable to the representative body. It is not difficult to apply the
case to our own country. * Let it be imagined that at a general election
the opposition were to return 500 out of 658 members of the House of
Commons, and that the whole policy of the ministry should be condemned,

36

and every bill introduced by it rejected by this immense majority. Let
it be supposed that the Crown should consider it a point of honour and
duty to retain a ministry so condemned and so thwarted , that repeated
dissolutions should in no way increase, but should even diminish, the
ministerial minority ; and that the only result which could be obtained
by such a development of the force of the opposition, were not the
slightest change in the policy of the ministry, not the removal of a single
minister, but simply the election of a Speaker of the politics of the majo-
rity ; and, I think, it will not be difficult to imagine the fate of such a
system of government. Yet such was the system, such literally was the
course of events in Lower Canada, and such in character, though not
quite in degree, was the spectacle exhibited in Upper Canada, and, at
one time or another, in every one of the North American colonies. To
suppose that such a system would work well there, implies a belief that
the French Canadians have enjoyed representative institutions for half a
century, without acquiring any of the characteristics of a free people ;
that Englishmen renounce every political opinion and feeling when they
enter a colony, or that the spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom is utterly changed
and weakened among those who are transplanted across the Atlantic.

It appears, therefore, that the opposition of the Assembly to the govern-
ment was the unavoidable result of a system which stinted the popular
branch of the Legislature of the necessary privileges of a representative
body, and produced thereby a long series of attempts on the part of that
body to acquire controul over the administration of the Province. I say
all this without reference to the ultimate aim of the Assembly, which I
have before described as being the maintenance of a Canadian nation-
ality against the progressive intrusion of the English race. Having no
responsible ministers to deal with, it entered upon that system of long
inquiries by means of its committees, which brought the whole action of
the executive immediately under its purview, and transgressed our notions
of the proper limits of parliamentary interference. Having no influenco
Jin the choice of any public functionary, no power to procure the removal
Jo f such as were obnoxious to it merely on political grounds, and seeing
'almost every office of the colony filled by persons in whom it had no
confidence, it entered on that vicious course of assailing its prominent
opponents individually, and disqualifying them for the public service, by
making them the subjects of inquiries and consequent impeachments, not
always conducted with even the appearance of a due regard to justice;
and when nothing else could attain its end of altering the policy or the
/ composition of the colonial government, it had recourse to that ultima
ratio of representative power to which the more prudent forbearance of
the Crown has never driven the House of Commons in England, and
endeavoured to disable the whole machine of government by a general
refusal of the supplies.
\ It was an unhappy consequence of the system which I have been de-
/ scribing, that it relieved the popular leaders of all the responsibilities of
opposition. A member of opposition in this country acts and speaks
with the contingency of becoming a minister constantly before his eyes,
and he feels, therefore, the necessity of proposing no course, and of assert-
ing no principles, on which he would not be prepared to conduct the
government, if he were immediately offered it. But the colonial dema-
gogue bids high for popularity without the fear of future exposure. —
hopelessly excluded from power, he expresses the wildest opinions, and

37

appeals to ihe most mischievous passsions of the people, without any ap-
prehension of having his sincerity or prudence hereafter tested, by being
placed in a position to carry his views into effect : and thus the prominent
places in the ranks of opposition are occupied for the most part by men
of strong passions, and merely declamatory powers, who think but little
of reforming the abuses which serve them as topics for exciting discontent.
The collision with the executive government necessarily brought on
one with the Legislative Council. The composition of this body, which-
has been so much the subject of discussion both here and in the colony,
must certainly be admitted to have been such as could give it no weight
with the people, or with the representative body, on which it was meant
to be a check. The majority was always composed of members of the
party which conducted the executive government; the clerks of each
council were members of the other ; and in fact, the Legislative Council
was practically hardly anything but a veto in the hands of public func-
tionaries on all the acts of that popular branch of the Legislature in
which they were always in a minority. This veto they used without much
scruple. J am far from concurring in the censure which the Assembly
and its advocates have attempted to cast on the acts of the Legislative
Council. I have no hesitation in saying that many of the bills which it
is most severely blamed for rejecting, were bills which it could not have
passed without a dereliction of its duty to the constitution, the connection
with Great Britain, and the whole English population of the colony. If
there is any censure to be passed on its general conduct, it i* for having
confined itself to the merely negative and defensive duties of a legislative
body ; for having loo frequently contented itself with merely defeating
objectionable methods of obtaining desirable ends, without completing
its duty by proposing measures, which would have achieved the good in
view without the mixture of evil. The national animosities which per-
vaded the legislation of the Assembly, and its thorough want of legislative
skill or respect for constitutional principles, rendered almost all its bills
obnoxious to the objections made by the Legislative Council ; and the
serious evil which their enactment would have occasioned, convinces me
that the colony has reason to congratulate itself on the existence of an
institution which possessed and used the power of stopping a course of
legislation that, if successful, would have sacrificed every British interest,
and overthrown every guarantee of order and national liberty. It is not
difficult for us to judge thus calmly of the respective merits of these dis-
v tant parties; but it must have been a great and deep-rooted respect for
the constitution and composition of the Legislative Council, that could
) have induced the representatives of a great majority to submit with pa-
! tience to the impediment thus placed in their way by a few individuals. —
But the Legislative Council was neither theoretically unobjectionable,
nor personally esteemed by the Assembly ; its opposition appeared to that
body but another form of official hostility, and it was inevitable that the
Assembly should, sooner or later, make those assaults on the constitution
of the Legislative Council which, by the singular want of judgment and
temper with which they were conducted, ended in the destruction of the
provincial constitution.

From the commencement, therefore, to the end of the disputes which
mark the whole Parliamentary history of Lower Canada, I look on the
conduct of the Assembly as a constant warfare with the Executive, for
the purpose of obtaining the powers inherent in a representative body by

33

the very nature of representative government. It was to accomplish tin*
purpose, that it used every means in its power ; but it must be censured
for having, in pursuit of this object, perverted its powers of legislation,
and disturbed the whole working of the Constitution. It made the business
of legislation, and the practical improvement of the country, suboidinate
to its struggle for power ; and, being denied its legitimate privileges, it
endeavoured to extend its authority in modes totally incompatible with
the principles of Constitutional liberty.

One glaring attempt, which was made directly and openly, to subvert
the Constitution of the country, was, by passing a bill lor the formal
repeal of those parts of the 3Lst Geo. III. chap. 31, commonly called the
Constitutional Act, by which the constitution and powers of the Legislative
Council were established. It can hardly be supposed that the framers of
this bill were unaware, or hoped to make any concealment of the obvious
illegality of a measure which, commencing, as all Canadian Acts do, by
a recital of the 31st Geo. III. as the foundation of the legislative authority
of the Assembly, proceeded immediately to infringe some of the most
important provisions of that very Statute ; nor can it be supposed that
the Assembly hoped really to carry into effect this extraordinary assumption
of power, inasmuch as the bill could derive no legal effect from passing
the Lower House, unless it should subsequently receive the assent of the
very body which it purported to annihilate.

A more dangerous, because, in some measure, more effectual device
for assuming unconstitutional powers, was practised by the Assembly in
its attempts to evade the necessity of obtaining the assent of the other
branches of the Legislature, by claiming for its own resolutions, and that,
too, on points of the greatest importance, the force of laws. A remark-
able instance of this was exhibited in the resolution which the Assembly
passed on the rejection of a bill for vacating the seats of Members, on the
acceptance of offices under the Crown ; and which, in fact, and undis-
guisedly, purported, by its own single authority, to give effect to the pro-
visions of the rejected bill. This resolution brought the Assembly into a
long dispute with Lord Aylmer, in consequence of his refusing to issue a
writ for the election of a Member, in place of Mr. Mondelet, whose seat
was declared vacant, in consequence of his having accepted the office of
Executive Councillor. The instance in which the Assembly thus attempted
to enforce this principle of disqualification, happened to be one to which
it could not be considered applicable, either from analogy to the law of
England, or from the apparent intent of the resolution itself; for the office
which Mr. Mondelet accepted, though one of high importance and influ-
ence, was one to which no salary or emolument of any kind was attached.

But the evils resulting from such open attempts to dispense with the
Constitution were small, in comparison with the disturbance of the regu-
lar course of legislation, by systematic abuse of constitutional forms, for
the purpose of depriving the other branches of the Legislature of all real
legislative authority. The custom of passing the most important laws in
a temporary form, has been an ancient and extensive defect of the legis-
lation of the North American Colonies, partially authorised by Royal
instructions to the Governors, but never sanctioned by the Imperial Legis-
lature, until it was established in Lower Canada by the 1st Vict. chap. 9.
It remained, however, for the Assembly of Lower Canada to reduce the
practice to a regular system, in order that it might have the most impor-
tant institutions of the Province periodically at its mercy, and use the

3d

necessities of the Government, and the community, foe the purpose of
extorting the concession of whatever demands it might choose to make.
Objectionable in itself, on account of the uncertainty and continual
changes which it tended to introduce into legislation, this system of tem-
porary laws derived its worst character from the facilities which it afforded
to the practice of "tacking" together various legislative measures; a
practice not unknown to the British Constitution, and which had some-
times been found useful, because the prudence of the House of Commons
has induced that body rarely to have recourse to it — but which the Legis-
lators of Lower Canada converted into the ordinary mode of legislation.
By the abuse of this practice, any branch of the Legislature had during
every Session the power, if it had the inclination, to make the renewal of
expiring laws the means of dictating its own terms to the others : and to
this end it was systematically converted by the Assembly. It adopted the
custom of renewing all expiring laws, however heterogeneous in their
character, in one and the same bill. Having the first choice to exercise,
it renewed, of course, only those Acts of which it approved, and left to
the Legislative Council, and the Governors, only the alternative of reject-
ing such as had proved to be beneficial, or of passing such as in their
opinion had proved to be mischievous. A singular instance of this occur-
red in 1836, with respect to the renewal of the Jury Law, to which the
Assembly attached great importance, and to which the Legislative Coun-
cil felt a strong repugnance — on account of its having, in effect, placed
the Juries entirely in the hands of the French portion of the population.
In order to secure the renewal of this Law, the Assembly coupled it in
the same bill, by which it renewed the tolls of the Lachine Canal, calcu-
lating on the Council not venturing to defeat a measure of so much
importance to the revenue as the latter, by resisting the former. The
Council, however, rejected the bill ; and thus the Canal remained toll
free for a whole season, because the two Houses differed about a Jury
Law.

Nor was this custom of "tacking" confined to the case of the renewal
of expiring laws. A bill for the independence of the Judges was coupled
with the establishment of a new tribunal for trying impeachments, and,
with other provisions, to which it was known that the Crown was decidedly
hostile ; and thus, in the attempt to extort an objectionable concession,
a most desirable guarantee for the pure administration of justice, wan
sacrificed.

The system thus framed, was completed by the regulations with respect
to a quorum, and the use which the majority made of them. A quorum
of nearly half the whole House was required for the transaction of business.
Towards the end of every recent Session, the majority used to break up
the quorum, and disperse to their respective homes, without waiting to be
prorogued, immediately after sending up a number of bills to the Council :
thus leaving no means of considering or adopting any amendments which
that body might make, and leaving it no option but that of rejecting or
confirming, by wholesale, the measures of the Assembly.

But in describing the means by which the Assembly obtained and at-
tempted to consolidate its power, 1 must not omit to direct particular atten-
tion to that which, after all, was the most effectual — and which originated
in a defect common to thre system of Government in all the North Ame-
rican Colonies ; it is the practice of making Parliamentary grants for local
works — a system so vicious, and so productive of evil, that I believe that

40

Until it is entirely eradicated, representative Government will be incapable
of working well and smoothly in those Colonies.

I know, indeed, of no difference in the machinery of Government in
the Old and New World, that strikes an European more forcibly, than the
apparently undue importance which the business of constructing public
works appears to occupy in American legislation. In speaking of the
character of a Government, its merits appear to be estimated by the public
works which it has carried into effect. If an individual is asked how his
own Legislature has acted, he will generally say what roads or bridges it
has made, or neglected to make, in his own District ; and if he is consulted
about changes in a Constitution, he seems to try their soundness by cal-
culating whether his neighbourhood would get more and better roads and
bridges, under the exisiing or the proposed system. On examining the
proceedings of a Legislature, we find that a great proportion of its dis-
cussions turn on such questions; and if we look to the budget, we find
that a still greater proportion of the public money is applied to these pur-
poses. Those who reflect on the circumstances of the New World, will
not find it very difficult to account for the attention there paid to what is
necessarily the first business of society, and is naturally the first care of
every responsible Government. The provision which, in Europe, the
State makes for the protection of its citizens against foreign enemies, is
in America required for what a French writer lias beautifully and accu-
rately called the "war with the wilderness." The defence of an important
fortress, or the maintenance of a sufficient army or navy in exposed spots,
is not more a matter of common concern to the European, than is the
construction of the great communications to the American settler ; and the
State, very naturally, takes on itself the making of the works, which are
matters of concern to all alike.

Even the municipal institutions of the northern states of the American
Union have not entirely superseded the necessity of some interference on
the part of their legislatures in aid of local improvements; though the
main efforts of those states have been directed to those vast undertakings
which are the common concern and common glory of their citizens. In
the southern states, where municipal institutions are less complete, the
Iegislarures are in the habit of taking part more constantly and exten-
sively in works which are properly of mere local inteiest; and great
complaints are made of consequent corruption and mismanagement. But
in the British colonies, in none of which is there any effectual system of
municipal government, the evil has been carried to the greatest height,
and exercises the most noxious influence. The great business of the
Assemblies is, literally, parish business; the making parish roads and
parish bridges. There are in none of these Provinces any local bodies
possessing authority to impose local assessments, for the management of
local affairs. To do these things is the business of the Assembly ; and to
induce the Assembly to attend to the particular interests of each county,
is the especial business of its county member. The surplus revenue of
the Province is swelled to as large an amount as possible, by cutting down
the payment of public services to as low a scale as possible : and the real
duties of Government are, sometimes, insufficiently provided for, in order
that more may be left to be divided among the constituent bodies. "When
we want a bridge, we take a judge to build it." was the quaint and forcible
way in which a member of a provincial legislature described the tendency
to retrench, in the most necessary departments of the public service, in

41

order to satisfy the demands for local works. This fund is voted by the
Assembly on the motion of its members ; the necessity of obtaining the
previous consent of the Crown to money votes never having been adopted
by the Colonial Legislatures from the practice of the British House of
Commons. There is a perfect scramble among the whole body to get as
much as possible of this fund for their respective constiiuents ; cabals are
formed, by which the different members mutually play into each other's
hands; general politics are made to bear on private business, and private
business on general politics ; and at the close of the parliament, the mem-
ber who has succeeded in securing the largest portion of the prize for his
constituents, renders an easy account of his stewardship,' with confident
assurance of re-election.

The provincial assembles being, as I have previously stated, in a state
of permanent collision with the government, have never been in the habit
of entrusting the executive with any control over these funds ; and they
have been wholly dispensed by commissioners named by the legislature.
The assemblies do not appear to have been at all insensible to the possibi-
lity of turning this patronage to their own account. An electioneering
handbill, which was circulated by the friends of government at the last
dissolution in Upper Canada, exhibited, in a very strong light, the ex-
pense of the commissioners of the assembly, contrasted with those of the
officers of the executive government; but the province of Nova Scotia
has carried this abuse to an extent which appears almost inconceivable.
According to a report presented to me by Major Head, an assistant com-
missioner of inquiry whom I sent to that colony, a sum of £10,000 was,
during the last session, appropriated to local improvements ; this sum was
divided into 830 portions, and as many commissioners were appointed to
expend it, giving, on an average, a commissioner for rather more than every
£12, with a salary of 5s. a day, and a further remuneration of two and a
half per cent, on the money expended, to be deducted out of each share.

Not only did the leaders of the Lower Canadian Assembly avail them-
selves of the patronage thus afforded by the large surplus revenue of the
Province, but they turned this system to much greater account, by using
it to obtain influence over the constituencies. In a furious political strug-
gle, like that which subsisted in Lower Canada, it was natural that a body
wielding, with hardly any reponsibility, this direct power of promoting
the immedite interests of each constituency, should show some favour to
that which concurred in its political views, and should exhibit its displea-
sure towards that which obstinately resisted the majority. But the majority
of the assembly of Lower Canada is accused by its opponents of having,
in the most systematic and persevering manner, employed this means of
corrupting the electoral bodies. The adherents of Mr. Papineau are said
to have been lavish in their promises of the benefits which they could ob-
tain from the assembly for the county whose suffiages they solicited. By
such representations the return of members of opposition politics is assert-
ed in many instances to have been secured ; and obstinate counties are al-
leged to have been sometimes starved into submission, by an entire with-
drawal of grants, until they returned members favourable to the majority.
Some of the English members who voted with M. Papineau excused them-
selves to their countrymen, by alleging that they were compelled to do so, in
order to get a road or a bridge, which their constituents desired. Whether
it be true or false that the abuse was ever carried to such a pitch, it is
F

42

obviously one which might have been easily and safely perpetrated by a
person possessing Mr. Papineau's influence in the Assembly.

But the most bold and extensive attempt for erecting a system of pa-
tronage, wholly independent of the government, was that which was, for
some time, carried into effect by the grants for education made by the
Assembly, and regulated by the act, which the Legislative Council has
been most bitterly reproached with refusing to renew. It has been stated,
as a proof of the deliberate intention of the Legislative Council to crush
every attempt to civilize and elevate the great mass of the people, that it
thus stopped at onee the working of about 1,000 schools, and deprived of
education no less than 40,000 scholars who were actually profiting by the
means of instruction thus placed within their reach. But the reasons
which induced, or rather compelled, the Legislative Council to stop this
system are clearly stated in the report of that body, which contains the
most unanswerable justification of the course which it pursued. By that
it appears, that the whole superintendence and patronage of these schools
had, by the expired law, been vested in the hands of the county members ;
and that they had been allowed to manage the funds without even the
semblance of sufficient accountability. The members of the Assembly
had thus a patronage, in this single department, of about £25,000 per
annum, an amount equal to half of the whole ordinary civil expenditure
of the Province. They were not slow in profiling by the occasion thus
placed in their hands ; and as there existed in the Province no sufficient
supply of competent schoolmasters and mistresses, they nevertheless im-
mediately filled up the appointments with persons who were utterly and
obviously incompetent. A great proportion of the teachers could neither
read nor write. The gentleman whom I directed to inquire into the state
of education in the Province showed me a petition from certain school-
masters, which had come into his hands, and the majority &f the signa-
tures were those of marksmen. These ignorant teachers could convey
no useful instruction to their pupils ; the utmost amount which they
taught them was to say the Catechism by rote. Even within seven miles
of Montreal there was a schoolmistress thus unqualified. These appoint-
ments were, as might have been expected, jobbed by the members among
their political partisans; nor were the funds very honestly managed. In-
many cases the members were suspected or accused of misapplying them
to their own use ; and in the case of Beauharnois, where the seigneur>
Mr. Ellice, has, in the same spirit of judicious liberality, by which his
whole management of that extensive property has been marked, contri-
buted most largely towards the education of his tenants, the school funds
were proved to have been misappropriated by the county member. The
whole system was a gross political abuse ; and however laudable we must
hold the exertions of those who really laboured to relieve their country
from the reproach of being the least furnished with the means of educa-
tion of any on the North American continent, the more severely must
we condemn those who sacrificed this noble end, and perverted ample
means to serve the purposes of party.

I know not whether to ascribe the system which was adopted for the
relief of the distress periodically occurring in certain districts, to the same
policy of extending the influence of the Assembly by local grants, or
merely to the antiquated prejudices which seem to have pervaded many
parts of the Assembly's legislation, which dictated laws against hucksters
and the maintenance of foundling hospitals. No general system for the

43

relief of destitution, no poor-law of any kind was established, antTthe
wants of the country hardly demanded it. But when I arrived at Quebec,
I received a number of petitions from parishes situated on the lower part
of the St. Lawrence, praying for relief, in consequence of the failure of
the harvest. I found, on inquiry, that relief had been granted to these
districts for several successive years. The cause of the calamity was
obvious; it was the unsuitableness of wheat crops under the wretched
system of Canadian small farming, to the severe climate of that portion
of the Province. By the side of the distressed parishes were large dis-
tricts, in which a better system of farming, and, above all, the employ-
ment of the land for pasture and green crops, had diffused the most gene-
ral comfort among the agricultural population, and completely obviated
the occurrence of failure or distress. There were, in the vicinity of the
distressed parishes, large tracts of rich and unsettled land, available for
the permanent amelioration of the condition of this suffering people; and
there were valuable and extensive fisheries in the neighbourhood, which
might have supported it in comfort; yet no persevering attempt had been
made to provide permanent relief by encouraging the population which
was thus thrown on the legislature for support, either to adopt a better
system of agriculture, or to settle on other portions of the country, or to
avail itself of the fisheries. The Assembly met the evil by relieving the
distress in such a way as to stave off its immediate results, and ensure its
recurrence. It gave food for the season of scarcity, and seed to sow a
crop even of wheat as late as the 20th of June, which was, of course, to
fail in its turn ; for it had thus relieved the same kind of distress, in pre-
cisely the same places, for several successive years ; and its policy seemed
to be to pension a portion of the people to sow wheat where it would not
ripen.

It is melancholy to think of the opportunities of good legislation which
were sacrificed in this mere contest for power. No country in the world
ever demanded from a paternal government, or patriotic representatives,
more unceasing and vigorous reforms, both of its laws and its administrative
system. Lower Canada had, when we received it at the conquest, two
institutions, which alone preserved the semblance of order and civiliza-
tion in the community — the Catholic church and the militia, which was
so constituted and used as partially to supply the want of better civil
institutions. The beneficial influence of the Catholic church has been
cramped and weakened ; the militia is now annihilated, and years tnust
elapse ere it can be revived and used to any good purpose. Lower Ca-
nada remains without municipal institutions of local self-government,
which are the foundations of Anglo-Saxon freedom and civilization: nor
is their absence compensated by anything like the centralization of France.
The most defective judicial institutions remain unreformed. Alone,
among the nations that have sprung from the French, Lower Canada
remains under the unchanged civil laws of ancient France. Alone,
among the nations of the American Continent, it is without a public
system of education. Nor has it, in other respects, caught the spirit of
American progress. While the Assembly was wasting the surplus reve-
nues of the Province in jobs for the increase of patronage, and in petty
peddling in parochial business, it left untouched those vast and easy
means of communication which deserved, and would have repaid the
"application of the provincial revenues. The State of New York made
its own St. Lawrence from Lake Erie to the Hudson, while the govern-

44

ment of Lower Canada could not achieve, or even attempt the few miles
of canal and dredging which would have rendered its mighty rivers navi-
gable almost to their sources. The time which should have been devoted
to wise legislation was spent in a contest for power between the executive
and the people, "which a wise executive would have stopped at the outset,
by submitting to a legitimate responsibility, and which a wise people
would have ceased to press when it had virtually attained its endl. This
collision, and the defective constitution were, in conjunction with the
quarrel of the races, the causes of the mischiefs which I have detailed.
It will be a ground, I trust, of permanent congratulation, that the contest
terminated in the destruction of the impracticable constitution, which
caused the strife ; nor can I conceive any course of conduct which could
so effectually have destroyed the previous system of mismanagement, and
cleared the ground for future improvement, as that continued stoppage
of supplies which the Assembly, in its intemperance effected. It broke
down at once the whole of that vicious appropriation of public funds,
which was the great bane of provincial legislation, and has left the abuses
of the colony so long unfed, that a reforming government may here-
after work upon an unencumbered soil.

The inevitable result of the animosities of race, and of the constant
collision of the different powers of the state, which I have described, was
a thorough disorganization of the institutions and administrative system
of the country. I do not think that I necessarily cast any stigma on my
predecessors in Lower Canada, or on the uniform good intentions which
the Imperial government has clearly evinced towards every class and
every race in the colony, when I assert that a country which has been
agitated by these social and political dissensions, has suffered under great
misgovernment. The blame rests not on individuals, but on the vicious
system, which has generated the manifold and deep-rooted abuses that
pervade every department of the public service, and constitute the real
grievances of the colony. These grievances are common to the whole
people of Lower Canada ; and it is not one race, or one party only, that
suffers by their existence ; they have hindered the prosperity, and endan-
gered the security of all ; though, unquestionably, the interests which have
most materially been retarded by misgovernment, are the English. From
the highest to the lowest officers of the executive government, no impor-
tant department is so organised as to act vigorously and completely,
throughout the Province ; and every duty which a government owes to
its subjects is imperfectly discharged.

The defective system of administration in Lower Canada, commences
at the very source of power; and the efficiency of the public service is
impaired throughout, by the entire want, in the Colony, of any vigorous
administration of the prerogative of the Crown. The fact is, that accord-
ing to the present system, there is no real Representative of the*Crown in
the Province: there is in it, literally, no power which originates and con-
ducts the Executive Government. The Governor, it is true, is said to
represent the Sovereign — and the authority of the Crown is, to a certain
extent, delegated to him ; but he is, in fact, a mere subordinate Officer —
receiving his orders from the Secretary of State — responsible to him for
his conduct — and guided by his instructions. Instead of selecting a Gov-
ernor, with an entire confidence in his ability to use his local knowledge
of the real state of affairs in the Colony, in the manner which local obser-
vation and practical experience best prescribe to him, it has been the

45

policy of the Colonial Department, not only at the outset to instruct a
Governor as to the general policy which he was to carry into effect, but
to direct him, from time to time, by instructions, sometimes very precise,
as to the course which he was to pursue, in every important particular of
his Administration. Theoretically irresponsible to the Colonial Legisla-
ture, the Governor was, in effect, the only Officer in the Colony Avho was
at all responsible: inasmuch as the Assembly, by centering their attacks
on him, and making him appear the sole cause of the difficulties of the
Government, could occasion him so much vexation, and represent him in
so unfavourable a light at home, that it frequently succeeded in imposing
on him the necessity of resigning, or on the Colonial Minister, that of
recalling him. In order to shelter himself from this responsibility, it has
inevitably, and I must say very justifiably, been the policy of Governors,
to take care that the double responsibility shall be as light as possible — to
endeavour to throw it, as much as possible, on the Home Government,
and to do as little as possible without previously consulting the Colonial
Minister at home, and receiving his instructions. It has, therefore, been
the tendency of the local Government to settle every thing by reference
to the Colonial Department, in Downing Street. Almost every question
on which it was possible to avoid, even with great inconvenience, an im-
mediate decision, has been habitually the subject of reference ; and this
applies, not merely to those questions on which the local Executive and
Legislative bodies happened to differ — wherein the reference might be
taken as a kind of appeal — but to questions of a strictly local nature, on
which it was next to impossible for the Colonial Office to have any suffi-
cient information. It had become the habit of the Colonial Office to
originate these questions — to entertain applications from individuals — to
refer these applications to the Governor — and, on his answer, to make a
decision. The Governor has been enabled, by this system, to shift res-
ponsibility on the Colonial Office : inasmuch as in every important case
he was, in reality, carrying into effect the order of the authority to which
he was responsible. But the teal vigour of the Executive has been essen-
tially impaired — distance and delay have weakened the force of its deci-
sions— and the Colony has, in every crisis of danger, and almost every
detail of local management, felt the mischief of having its Executive
authority exercised on the other side of the Atlantic.

Nor has any thing been gained, either in effectual responsibility or sound
information, by thus transferring the details of Executive Government to
the Colonial Department, at home. The complete and unavoidable igno-
rance in which the British public, and even the great body of its legisla-
tors, are with respect to the real interests of distant communities, so
entirely different from their own, produces a general indifference, which
nothing hut some great Colonial crisis ever dispels ; and responsibility to
Parliament, or to the public opinion of Great Britain, would, except on
these great and rare occasions, be positively mischievous — if it were not
impossible. The repeated changes, caused by political events at home,
having no connection with Colonial affairs, have left to most of the various
representatives of the Colonial Department in Parliament, too little time
to acquire even an elementary knowledge of the condition of those nume-
rous and heterogeneous communities for which they have had both to
administer and legislate. The persons with whom the real management
of these affairs has or ought to have rested, have been the permanent but
utterly irresponsible members of the office. Thus the real Government

46

of the Colony has been entirely dissevered from the slight nominal res-
ponsibility which exists. Apart even from this great and primary evil of
the system, the pressure of multifarious business thus thrown on the Colo-
nial Office, and the repeated changes of its ostensible directors, have pro-
duced disorders in the management of public business which have occa-
sioned serious mischief, and very great irritation. This is not my own
opinion merely ; for I do but repeat that of a Select Committee of the
present House of Assembly, in Upper Canada, who, in a Report dated
February 8, 1838, say — "It appears to your Committee, that one of the
chief causes of dissatisfaction with the administration of Colonial affairs,
arises from the frequent changes in the office of Secretary of State, to
whom the Colonial Department is intrusted. Since the time the late
Lord Bathurst retired from that charge, in 1827, your Committee believe
there Has not been less than eight Colonial Ministers, and that the policy
of each successive Statesman has been more or less marked by a differ-
ence from that of his predecessor. This frequency of change, in itself,
almost necessarily entails two evils: Jirst, an imperfect knowledge of the
affairs of the Colonies, on the part of the Chief Secretary, and the con-
sequent necessity of submitting important details to the subordinate Offi-
cers of the Department ; and, second, the want of stability and firmness in
the general policy of the Government — and which, of course, creates
much uneasiness on the part of the Governors, and other Officers of the
Colonies, as to what measures may be approved.

"But undoubtedly," continues the Report, "by far the greatest objec-
tion to the system is, the impossibility it occasions of any Colonial Minister,
unaided by persons possessing local knowledge, becoming acquainted with
the wants, wishes, feelings and prejudices, of the inhabitants of the Colo-
nies, during his temporary continuance in office, and of deciding satis-
factorily upon the conflicting statements and claims that are brought
before him. A firm, unflinching resolution to adhere to the principles of
the Constitution, and to maintain the just and necessary powers of the
Crown, would do much towards supplying the want of local information.
But it would be performing more than can be reasonably expected from
human sagacity, if any man or set of men, should always decide in an
unexceptionable manner on subjects that have their origin thousands of
miles from the seat of the Imperial Government, where they reside, and of
which they have no personal knowledge whatever; and therefore wrong
may be often done to individuals, or a false view taken of some important
political question, that in the end may throw a whole community into
difficulty and dissension, not from the absence of the most anxious desire
to do right, but from an imperfect knowledge of facts upon which to form
an opinion.

"To these objections," adds the Report, "it may be answered, that
although the Chief Secretary of State retires with a change of Ministers,
the Under Secretaries, (or at least one of them,) and the other subordinate
Officers of the Department, remain and hold their offices permanently —
and therefore information upon all subjects can be readily imparted to the
superior by the gentlemen who are thus retained ; and it may be admitted,
that the knowledge of this fact ought to lessen the force of the objections
that rest on other grounds. But it cannot be disguised, that there is a
growing impatience and unwillingness on the part of the Colonists, espe-
cially in these extensive Provinces, to have the measures of Government,
whether connected with their general system of government, legislation

47

or patronage, controlled by persons who are utter strangers to them — not
responsible, in any way, 10 themselves or the British Parliament — and
who, perhaps, being advanced to their office from length of service, or other
like cause, are not regarded as competent (perhaps unjustly) to manage
and direct measures which they (the Colonists) deem of vital importance.
Much of this feeling may be traced to pride ; but it is a pride that springs
from an honourable and laudable feeling — and always accompanies self-
respect, true patriotism and love of country : and it therefore ought not to
be disregarded, nor should any attempt be made to lessen or control it, if
it were possible to do so. But the imperfection that exists in the system
of Colonial Government that prevails in England, is rendered more appa-
rent by the want of that confidence that ought to be reposed in the distin-
guished Officers who, from time to time, are commissioned as Governors
to different Colonies, than by any other fact that can be distinctly pointed
out."

I will now only point out one instance of these evils — and I select it
because it is an instance occurring in relation to the most important func-
tion of the Executive — namely, its exercise of the legislative prerogative
of the Crown, and because its existence has been admitted by the present
Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his instructions to my prede-
cessor, Lord Gosford — I mean the reservation of bills for the Royal assent.
The "too frequent reservation of bills" is a "grievance," says His Lord-
ship, "of which my inquiries lead me to believe the reality." And in a
subsequent part of the same Despatch, I Sis Lordship admits that, owing to
this cause, great mischief has been done, by the wholly unintentional
delay in giving the Royal assent to some perfectly unobjectionable bills*
having for their object the endowment of Colleges by benevolent persons.
This delay His Lordship describes as "chiefly attributable to political
events, and the consequent changes of the Colonial administration at
home." I know not to what cause is to be attributed a delay, which pro-
duced, with respect to another bill, the still more serious effect of a doubt
of its legality, after it had been considered and acted on as law. This
bill* was reserved ; and the Royal assent was so long delayed, through
mere inadvertence, that when it was sent out to the Colony as an Act, the
question was raised whether the Royal Assent had been delayed beyond"
the two years allowed by law, and whether, having been so delayed, it
was valid.

One of the greatest of all the evils arising from this system of irrespon-
sible Government, was the mystery in which the motives and actual pur-
poses of their Rulers were hid from the Colonists themselves. The most
important business of Government was carried on — not in oppn discus-
sions or public acts — but in a secret correspondence between the Governor
and the Secretary of State. Whenever this mystery was dispelled, it was
long after the worst effects had been produced by doubts and misappre-
hension ; and the Colonies have been frequently the last to learn the
things that most concerned them, by the publication of papers, on the
order of the British Houses of Parliament.

The Governor, thus slightly responsible, and invested with functions so
ill-defined, found himself at the head of a system, in which all his advisers
and subordinates had stilMess responsibility, and duties still less defined.

* The 9th and 10th Geo. IV. ehap.77.— The period began to run inMarch, 1829, and the Royal
assent was not given till May, 1831.

48

Disqualified at first by want of local information, and very often, subse-
quently, by an entire absence of all acquaintance with the business of
civil government, the Governor, on his arrival in the colony, found him-
self under the necessity of being, in many respects, guided by the persons
whom he found in office. In no country, therefore, could there be a
greater necessity for a proper demarcation of the business of each public
officer, and of a greater responsibility resting on each. Now, I do not at
all exaggerate the real state of the case when I assert, that there is no
head of any of the most important departments of public business in the
colony. The limited powers of the local government in a colony neces-
sarily obviate the necessity of any provision for some of the most import-
ant departments which elsewhere require a superintending mind. But
the mere ordinary administration of justice, police, education, public
works, and internal communications, of finance and of trade, would re-
quire the superintendence of persons competent to advise the Governor,
on their own responsibility, as to the measures which should be adopted;
and the additional labours which fall on the heads of such departments
in other countries, in devising improvements of the system and the laws
relating to each, would certainly afford additional occupation, growing
out of the peculiarly defective legislation and administration of Lower
Canada. Yet, of no one of these departments is there any responsible
head, by whose advice the Governor may safely be guided. There are
some subordinate and very capable officers in each department, from
whom he is, in fact, compelled to get information from time to time. But
there is no one to whom he, or the public, can look for the correct man-
agement and sound decision on the policy of each of these important
departments.

The real advisers of the Governor have, in fact, been the Executive
Council, and an institution more singularly calculated for preventing the
responsibility of the acts of Government resting on anybody can hardly
be imagined. It is a body of which the constitution somewhat resembles
that of the Privy Council ; it is bound b) a similar oath of secresy ; it
discharges in the same manner certain anomalous judicial functions; and
its " consent and advice" are required in some cases in which the obser-
vance of that form has been thought a requisite check on the exercise of
particular prerogatives of the Crown. But in other respects it bears a
greater resemblance to a cabinet, the Governor being in the habit of taking
its advice on most of the important questions of his policy. But as there
is no division into departments in the Council, there is no individual
responsibility, and no individual superintendence. Each member of the
Council takes an equal part in all the business brought before it. The power
of removing members being very rarely exercised, the Council is, in fact,
for the most part, composed of persons placed in it long ago ; and the
Governor is obliged either to take the advice of persons in whom he has
no confidence, or to consult only a portion of the Council. The secresy
of the proceedings adds to the irresponsibility of the body ; and when the
Governor takes an important step, it is not known, or not authentically
known, whether he has taken the advice of this Council or not, what
members he has consulted, or by the advice of which of the body he has
been finally guided. The responsibility of the Executive Council has
been constantly demanded by the Reformers of Upper Canada, and occa-
sionally by those of the Lower Province. But it is really difficult to con-
ceive how desirable responsibility could be attained, except by altering

49

llie working of this cumbrous machine, and placing the business of the
various departments of government in the hands of competent public
officers.

In the ordinary course of public business in the colony, almost all mat-
ters come, in fact, before the Governor, or his immediate assistant, the
civil secretary of the Province. The civil secretary's office is, in fact,
the one general public office in which almost every species of business
originates, or through which it passes in some stage or other. The ap-
plications which every day reach this office show the singular want of
proper organization in the Province, and the great confusion of ideas
respecting the functions of government, generated in the minds of the
people. A very considerable proportion consists of tequests to the
Governor to interfere with the course of civil justice. Every decision of
subordinate officers is made matter of appeal; and no reference to the
proper department satisfies the applicants, who imagine that they have a
right to claim a personal investigation of every case by the Governor or
the Civil Secretary. The appeals from the past are equally numerous ;
and it appears to be expected that every new Governor should sit in judg-
ment on every decision of any or all of his predecessors, which happens
to have dissatisfied the applicant.

But if such is the bad organization and imperfection of the system at
the seat of government, it may be easily believed that the remainder of
the Province enjoyed no very vigorous or complete administration. In
fact, beyond the walls of Quebec, all regular administration of the country
appeared to cease; and there literally was hardly a single public officer
of the civil government, except in Montreal and Three Rivers, to whom
any order could be directed. The solicitor-general commonly resides at
Montreal ; and in each of the districts there is a sheriff. In the rest of
the Province there is no sheriff, no mayor, no constable, no superior ad-
ministrative officer of any kind. There are no county, no municipal, no
parochial officers, either named by the Crown, or elected by the people.
There is a body of unpaid justices of the peace, whom I will describe more
particularly hereafter. The officers of the militia used to be employed
for purposes of police, as far as regarded the service of criminal warrants ;
but their services were voluntary, and not very assiduous; and the whole
body is now completely disorganised. In every case in which any infor-
mation was required by the government, or any service was to be per-
formed in a remote part of the Province, it was necessary either to send
some one to the spot, or to find out, by inquiry at the seat of government,
the name of some resident there whom it was advisable and safe to consult
on the subject, or direct to do the act required. In the state of parties
in the country, such a step could hardly ever be taken without trusting to
very suspicious information, or delegating power to persons who would
be, or be suspected of being, likely to abuse it.

This utter want of any machinery of executive government in the Pro-
vince is not, perhaps, more striking than might be observed in some of
the most flourishing portions of the American continent. But in the
greater part of the states to which I refer, the want of means at the dis-
posal of the central executive is amply supplied by the efficiency of the
municipal institutions; and even where these are wanting, or imperfect,
the energy and self-governing habits of an Anglo-Saxon population enable
it to combine whenever a necessity arises. But the French population
G

50

of Lower Canada possesses neither such institutions nor such a character.
Accustomed to rely entirely on the government, it has no power of doing
anything for itself, much less of aiding the central authority.

The utter want of municipal institutions giving the people any countrol
over their local affairs, may indeed be considered as one of the main causes
of the failure of representative government, and of the bad administiation
of the country. If the wise example of those countries in which a free
representative government has alone worked well, had been in all respects
followed in Lower Canada, care would have been taken that, at the same
time that a Parliamentary system, based on a very extended suffrage, was
introduced into the country, the people should have been entrusted with
a complete control over their own local affairs, and been trained for taking
their part in the concerns of the Province, by their experience in the
management of that local business which was most interesting and most
easily intelligible to them. But the inhabitants of Lower Canada were
unhappily initiated into self-government at exactly the wrong end, and
those who were not trusted with the management of a parish, were ena-
bled, by their votes, to influence the destinies of a state. During my
stay in the Province, I appointed a commission to inquire into its muni-
cipal institutions, and the practicability of introducing an effective and
free system for the management of local affairs. The gentlemen entrusted
with this inquiry had, when they were interrupted in their labours, made
considerable progress towards preparing a report, which will, I hope,
develope, in a full and satisfactory manner, the extent of the existing
evil, and the nature of the practicable remedies.

There never has been, in fact, any institution in Lower Canada, in
which any portion of the French population have been brought together
for any administrative purpose, nor is there among the divisions of the
country any one which has been constituted with a view to such an end.
The larger divisions, called " districts," are purely judicial divisions. —
The counties may be called merely parliamentary divisions; for I
know of no purpose for which they appear to have been constituted,
except for the election of members for the House of Assembly; and
during the present suspension of representative government, they are
merely arbitrary and useless geographical divisions. There are no hun-
dreds, or corresponding sub-divisions of counties. The parishes are
purely ecclesiastical divisions, and may be altered by the Catholic bish-
ops. The only institution in the nature of local management, in which
the people have any voice, is the fabrique, by which provision is made
for the repairs of the Catholic churches.

The townships are inhabited entirely by a population of British and
American origin ; and may be said to be divisions established for sur-
veying, rather than any other purposes. The eastern townships present
a lamentable contrast in the management of all local matters to the bor-
dering state of Vermont, in which the municipal institutions are the most
complete, it is said, of any part even of New England. In any new set-
tled district of New England, a small number of families settling within
a certain distance of each other, are immediately empowered by law to
assess themselves for local purposes, and to elect local officers. The
settlers in the eastern townships, many of whom are natives of New Eng-
land, and all of whom can contrast the slate of things on their own, with
that which is to be seen on the other side of the line, have a serious and
general cause of discontent in the very inferior management of all their

51

6\vn local concerns. The government appears even to have discouraged
the American settlers from introducing their own municipal institutions
by common assent. "I understood," says Mr. Richards, in a Report
to the Secretary of State of the Colonies, ordered by the House of Com-
mons to be printed in March, 1832, "that the Vermonters had crossed
the line, and partially occupied several townships, bringing with them
their own municipal customs; and that when the impropriety of electing
their own officers was pointed out to them, they had quickly given them
up, and promised to conform to those of Canada."

But the want of municipal institutions has been and is most glaringly
remarkable in Quebec and Montreal. These cities were incorporated a
few years ago by a temporary Provincial Act, of which the renewal was
rejected in 1836. Since that time these cities have been without any
municipal government ; and the disgraceful state of the streets, and the
utter absence of lighting, are consequences which arrest the attention of
all, and seriously affect the comfort and security of the inhabitants.

The worst effects of this most faulty system of general administration
will be developed in the vie_w which I shall hereafter give of tlie practices
adopted with respect to the public lands, and the settlement o( the Pro-
vince, hut which I postpone for the present, because I purpose consider-
ing this subject with reference to all the North American Provinces. —
But I must here notice the mischievous results prominently exhibited in
the provision which the government of Lower Canada makes for the first
want of a people, the efficient administration of justice.

The law of the Province and the administration of justice are, in fact*
a patch-work of the results of the interference at different times of dif-
ferent legislative powers, each proceeding on utterly different and gene-
rally incomplete views, and each utterly regardless of the other. The
law itself is a mass of incoherent and conflicting laws, part French, part
English, and with the line between each very confusedly drawn. Thus,
the criminal law is the criminal law of England, as it was introduced in
1774, with such modifications as have since been made by the Provincial
Legislature, it being now disputed whether the Provincial Legislature
had any power to make any change whatever in that law, and it not
being at all clear what is the extent of the phrase " criminal law." The
civil law is the ancient civil law, also modified in some, but unfortunately
very few respects; and these modifications have been almost exclusively
effected by acts of the British Parliament and by ordinances of the Go-
vernor and council constituted under the Quebec Act. The French law
of evidence prevails in all civil matters, with a special exception of
" commercial" cases, in which it is provided that the English law is to
be adopted ; but no two lawyers agree in their definition of " commercial."
For judicial purposes, the Province is divided into four superior dis-
tricts, having unlimited and supreme original jurisdiction, and one infe-
rior, with limited jurisdiction. The four superior are those of Quebec
and Montreal, Three Rivers, and St. Francis ; the inferior, that of Gaspe.
The district of Gaspe is subordinate to that of Quebec, with some spe-
cial provisions for the administration of justice within it under a particu-
lar Provincial Act, which expires next May. I could obtain no very
satisfactory information respecting this district, except that everybody
appeared to be of opinion that, from its distance and scanty population,
it had always met with very little attention from either the legislature or
the executive government. About the administration of justice therein,

I could hardly obtain any information ; indeed, on one occasion, it being
necessary, for some particular purpose, to ascertain the fact, inquiry
ivas made at all the public offices in Quebec, whether or not there
was any coroner for Gaspe. It was a long time before any information
could be got on this point, and it was at last in some measure cleared up,
by the Accountant-General discovering an estimate for the salary of such
an Officer. The only positive information, therefore, that I can give
respecting the present administration of justice in Gaspe is, that I re-
ceived a petition from the inhabitants, praying that the Act by which it is
regulated might not be renewed.

Each of the Courts of Quebec and Montreal has a Chief Justice, and*
three Puisne Judges; there is but one Judge in each of the Districts of
Three Rivers and St. Francis. During term time, Judges from other
Districts make up the Bench in these two.

In all civil cases, these Courts have original jurisdiction to an unlimited
amount ; and in spite of the immense extent of all, but particularly of
the two greater Districts, the parties are, in almost all cases, brought up
to the chief Towns for the trial of their causes.

An attempt, but of a very trifling and abortive character, has been made
to introduce the English system of Circuits. The Judges of these Districts
make Circuits once a year, in order to try causes in which the disputed
value is not more than £10, Sterling. The limitation of the value — the
introduction of Small Debt Courts, and the consequent failure of attend-
ance on the part of a Bar during their progress — and the very insufficient
time allotted for the stay at each place — have, I am informed, rendered
these Circuits almost useless; and even the suits which might be tried at
the Circuits, are generally, in preference, carried up for trial to the chief
places of these Districts.

There are some complaints that excessive fees are taken in the Courts
of Montreal and Quebec. The distribution of legal patronage is a matter
of great, it is not easy to say, of how just complaint; but the substantial
evil of the administration of civil justice consists in the practical denial
of it— caused by the utter inefficiency of the Circuit system, and the enor-
mous expense and delay of carrying every suit, where the value in dispute
is more than £10, Sterling, from the extremities of the three large and
settled Districts of the Province, to the three District Towns — in the vicious
constitution of the inferior tribunals, by which it has been attempted to
supply the want of an effective system, either of Circuits or local Courts —
and in the very faulty nature of the supreme appellate jurisdiction of the
Province.

The minor litigation of the country is, in fact, carried on throughout
these three Districts in the Courts of the Commissioners of Small Causes.
These Courts are established in the different Parishes, by the Governor,
on an application made by a certain number of the Parishioners, according
to forms prescribed by the Provincial Statute, in which this institution
takes its rise, and have jurisdiction over all debts not exceeding twenty-
five dollars, equal to £6 5s. Cu rency. The Commissioners are appointed
by the Governor, upon the recommendation of the petitioners; these are
residents in the parish, and almost wholly unversed in law. The consti-
tution of these Courts is, in fact, nothing else in substance but an elective
judiciary — elected under the most irregular, fraudulent and absurd elec-
toral system that could possibly be devised. I cannot better illustrate this
description, than by narrating simply the mode in which the appointment

53

is, in fact, made. It is, and has for a long time been, left almost entire//
in the hands of a subordinate assistant, in the Civil Secretary's Office,
This gentleman stated that he took no steps, and indeed by law he could
not, until he received a petition, with the requisite number of names
attached. His impression was, that these signatures were generally
obtained by assiduous canvassing in the parish, generally on the part of
some person who wanted the appointment of Clerk, which is paid, and
who took this trouble, in order to secure the nomination of Commission-
ers, from whom he expected to get the appointment. After some inquiry
from any person whom this Assistant Secretary thought proper to consult,
respecting the characters of the persons proposed, they were, almost as a
matter of course, appointed. After a short time, if some other person in
the District happened to acquire more popularity, and to covet the office,
a petition was got up, containing charges against the occupant of the
office, and praying for his removal, and the substitution of his rival.—
Upon most of the appointments, also, there arose long controversies res-
pecting the politics, qualification and character, of the candidate for
office ; and a removal or new appointment was always attributed to some
political causes, by the newspapers of each party or race. The inquiry
into the qualification of persons proposed — the investigation of the charges
made — the defence urged in reply — and the distant and unsatisfactory
evidence adduced in support of each — formed a large proportion of the
business of the Civil Secretary's Office. Whatever appointment was
made, the Government was sure to create dissatisfaction ; and the admi-
nistration of justice was left in the hands of incompetent men, whose
appointment had been made in such a manner, as even, sometimes, to
render their integrity suspicious, in the eyes, not only of those who had
opposed, but also of those who had supported their nomination. I shall
only add, that sometime previous to my leaving the Province, I was very
warmly and forcibly urged, by the highest legal authorities in the country,
to abolish all these tribunals at once, on the ground that a great many of
them, being composed entirely of disaffected French Canadians, were
busily occupied in harrassing loyal Subjects, by entertaining actions
against them, on account of the part they had taken in the late insurrec-
tion. There is no appeal from their decision ; and it was stated that they
had, in the most bare-faced manner, given damages against loyal persons,
for acts done in the discharge of their duty, and judgments by default
against persons who were absent, as volunteers in the service of the
Queen, and enforced their judgment by levying distresses on their
property.

I must now turn from the lowest to the highest civil tribunal of the
Province. In a country in which the administration of justice is so
imperfect in ail the inferior stages, and in which two different and often
conflicting systems of law are administered by Judges, whose professional
education and origin necessarily cause different leanings in favour of the
respective systems in which each is more particularly versed, the existence
of a good and available appellate jurisdiction, which may keep the law
uniform and certain, is matter of much greater importance than in those
countries in which the law is homogeneous, and its administration by the
subordinate tribunals is satisfactory. But the appellate jurisdiction of
Lower Canada is vested in the Executive Council — a body established
simply for political purposes — and composed of persons in great part
having no legal qualifications whatsoever. The Executive Council sits

as a' Court of Appeal, four times in the year, antT for the space of tetl
days during each Session ; and on these occasions the two Chief Justices
of Quebec and Montreal were, ex officio, Presidents — and each in turn
presided, when appeals from the other's District were heard. The laymen
who were present to make up the necessary quorum of five, as a matter
of course, left the whole matter to the presiding Chief Justice, except in
some instances, in which party feelings or pecuniary inrerests are asserted
to have induced the unprofessional members to attend in unusual num-
bers, to disregard the authority of the Chief Justice, and to pervert the
law. In the general run of cases, therefore, the decision was left to. the
President alone : and each Chief Justice became, in consequence, the
real Judge of Appeal from the whole Court of the other District. It is a
matter of perfect and undisputed notoriety, that this system has produced
the results which ought to have been foreseen as inevitable: and that, for
some time before I arrived in the Province, the two Chief Justices had
constantly differed in opinion upon some most important points, and had
been in the habit of generally reversing each other's judgments. Not
only, therefore, was the law uncertain and different in the two Districts,
but, owing to the ultimate power of the Court of Appeal, that which was
the real law of each District was that which was held not to be law by the
Judges of that District. This is not merely an inference of my own ; it
is very clear that it was the general opinion of the profession and the pub-
lic. The Court of Appeal, as re-modelled by me, at the only sitting
which it held, reversed all but one of the judgments brought before it.
This induced a member of the Court to remark to one of the Chief Jus-
tices, that so general a reversal of the law of a very competent Court
below, by a tribunal so competent as the Court of Appeals then was,
appeared to him utterly inexplicable : inasmuch as it could in nowise be
attributed, as it was before, to the influence of a single Judge. The
reply of the Chief Justice was, that the matter was easily accounted for;
that the system previously adopted in the Court of Appeals, had rendered
the decision of the Court below so complete a nullity, that the parties and
counsel below often would not take the trouble to enter into the real
merits of their case — and that the real bearing and law of the case were,
generally, most fully stated before the Court of Appeals.

As the business of the Court of Appeals was thus of great extent and
importance, it became necessary that, having from political considerations
altered the composition of the Executive Council, 1 should re-organize
the Court of Appeals. I determined to do this upon the best principle
that I could carry into effect, under the circumstances of the case ; for,
as the constitution of the Court of Appeals is prescribed by the Constitu-
tional Act, I could not vest the appellate jurisdiction in any other body
than the Executive Council. 1 called, therefore, to the Executive Coun-
cil, the Chief Justice and one Puisne Judge from each of the two Districts
of Quebec and Montreal, and by summoning also the Judge of Three
Jlivers, I gave the members of the two conflicting tribunals an impartial
nrbiter, in the person of M. Vallicre de St. Real, admitted, by universal
consent, to be the ablest French lawyer in the Province. But the regu-
lations of the Executive Council, which it was supposed I could not alter
in this case, required the presence of a quorum of five; and as no Judge
could sit on an appeal from his own Court, I had now only provided
three for every appeal from the two greater Districts. In order to make
up the quorum, the Court was therefore attended by two other Executive

55

Councillors — one of whom, by his thorough knowledge of commercial
law, and his general legal experience, was commonly admitted to have
rendered essential service. I believe I may confidently say, that the deci-
sions of this Court carried far greater weight than those of any previous
Court of Appeals.

The further appeal to the Privy Council, allowed in cases where the
value was above £500, is, from the great delay and great expense attend"
ant on it, hardly ever resorted to. The establishment of a good appel-
late jurisdiction for the whole of the North American colonies is there-
fore greatly desired by every Province ; and a competent tribunal for
this purpose would spare the cost and delay of a resort to the Privy Coun-
cil, and answer all the purposes proposed to be attained by the present
double system of appeal.

The evils of the system of criminal justice are not so various, but from
the faulty judicial division and administrative system of the Province,
the defects which exist in the constitution of the courts of justice are even
more severely feft in this department ; for, except at the principal towns
of the five districts, there is not the slightest provision for criminal jus-
tice, and to these places all prisoners must be brought for trial from the
the most remote parts, subject to their jurisdiction. Thus, from the ex-
treme settlements on the Ottawa, where is now the great seat of the lum-
ber trade, and of the large and wild population which it brings together,
all prisoners have to be carried to a distance of two hundred miles, by
bad and uncertain means of conveyance, to Montreal for trial. On the
left bank of the Ottawa the law has, according to a high legal authority,
no power. It was but lately that a violent mob, called Shiners, for a
long time set the law at defiance, and had entirely at their mercy the
large properties invested in that part of the country.

Besides those in the five places above mentioned, there are only three
county gaols, one of which is in the district of Gaspe There are no ses-
sions held in any other than those places. At the Quebec, Montreal and
Three Rivers quarter sessions there were, some years ago, professional
and salaried chairmen, but the Assembly discontinued them. There are
sheriffs only in the districts, and not in each county. They are named
by the Crown for life, and are removable at pleasure. The offices are
very lucrative, and are said to have been frequently disposed of from
personal or political favouritism. It is also matter of complaint, that
insufficient security has been taken from those appointed to them ; and
many individuals have consequently sustained very serious loss from the
defalcation of sheriffs.

But the most serious mischief in the administration of criminal justice,
arises from the entire perversion of the institution of juries, by the poli-
tical and national prejudices of the people. The trial by jury was intro-
duced with the rest of the English criminal law. For a long time the
composition of both grand and petit juries was settled by the Governor,
and they were at first taken from the cities, which were the chefs lieux
of the district. Complaints were made that this gave an undue prepon-
derance to the British in those cities; though, from the proportions of
the population, it is not very obvious how they could thereby obtain more
than an equal share. In consequence, however, of these complaints, an
order was issued under the government of Sir James Kempt, directing
the sheriffs to take the juries not only from the cities, but from the adja-
cent country, for fifteen leagues in every direction. An act was subse-

56

qUently passed, commonly called "Mr. Viger's Jury Act," extending
these limits to those of the district. The principle of taking the jury
from the whole district, to which the jurisdiction of the court extended,
is undoubtedly in conformity with the principles of English law ; and
Mr. Viger's Act, adopting the other regulations of the English jury law,
provided a fair selection of juries. But if we consider the hostility and
proportions of the two races, the practical effect of tiiis law was to give
the French an entire preponderance in the juries. This act was one of
the temporary acts of the Assembly, and having expired in 1856, the
Legislative Council refused to renew it. Since that period, there has
been no jury law whatever. The composition of the juries has been
altogether in the hands of the government : private instructions, however,
have been given to the sheriff to act in conformity with Sir James Kempt's
ordinance ; but though he has always done so, the public have had no
security for any fairness in the selection of the juries. There was no
visible check on the sheriff; the public knew that he could pack a jury
whenever he pleased, and supposed, as a matter of course, that an officer
holding a lucrative appointment at the pleasure of government would be
ready to carry into effect those unfair designs which they were always
ready to attribute to the government. When I arrived in the Province
the public was expecting the trials of the persons accused of participation
in the late insurrection. I was on the one hand informed by the law
officers of the Crown and the highest judicial authorities, that not the
slightest chance existed under any fair system of getting a jury that
would convict any of these men, however clear the evidence of their
guilt might be; and on the other side I was given to understand that the
prisoners and their friends supposed that, as a matter of course, they
would be tried by packed juries, and that even the most clearly innocent
of them would be convicted.

It is, indeed, a lamentable fact, which must not be concealed, that there
does not exist in the minds of the people of this Province the slightest
confidence in the administration of criminal justice; nor were the com-
plaints, or the apparent grounds for them, confined to one party.

The French complain that the institution of both grand and petit juries
have been repeatedly tampered with against them. They complain that
when it has suited the interests of the government to protect persons guilty
of gross offences against the French party, they have attained their end
by packing the grand jury. Great excitement has long existed among
the French party in consequence of a riot which took place at the election
for the West Ward of Montreal, in May 1882, on which occasion the
troops were called out, fired on the people, and killed three of them. —
An indictment was preferred against the magistrates and officers who
ordered the troops to fire. It was urged by the French that the grand
jury was composed almost entirely of Englishmen, that twelve out of the
twenty-three were taken from the parish of Lachine, the smallest in the
whole island; a selection which, they said, could hardly be attributed to
mere chance, and that they were not in the usual station in life of grand
jurymen. The opposite party, it must be observed, however, argued that
this apparent selection of a majority of the grand jury from a single par-
ish was a necessary result of some ill-contrived provision of Mr. Viger's
Jury Act. The bill was thrown out, and all judicial investigation into
the circumstances consequently quashed. I am merely mentioning the
complaints of parties. I know not whether the preceding allegations

57

were well founded, but there can be no doubt that such was the impres*
sion produced among the French Canadians by these proceedings, which»
in their minds, completely destroyed all confidence in the administration
of justice.

The French Canadians further complain that the favourable decision
of a grand jury was of no avail to those who had fallen under the displea-
sure of the government. There are several instances in the recent his*
tory of Lower Canada, in which an attorney-general, being dissatisfied
with the conduct of the grand jury in ignoring a bill, either repeated by pre-7'
ferred indictments for the same offence, until he obtained a grand jury
which would find them, or filed ex officio informations.

Nor are the complaints of the English population of a less serious na-
ture. They assert, unhappily on two undisputable grounds, that the Ca-
nadian grand and petit juries have invariably used their power to insure
impunity to such of their countrymen as had been guilty of political
offences. The. case of Chartrand is not the only one in which it is gene-
rally believed that this has been done. The murderers of an Irish private
soldier of the 24th Regiment, of the name of Hands, are asserted to have
been saved by an equally gross violation of their oaths on the part of the
jury, A respectable and intelligent member of the grand jury which sat
at Montreal, in October, 1837, informed the government that nothing
could be more proper than the behaviour of a great majority of the jury-
men, who were French Canadians, while they were occupied with cases
not connected with politics. They attended patiently to the evidence,
and showed themselves well disposed to follow the opinion of the fore-
man, who was a magistrate of great competence ; but it'was added, that
the instant they came to a political case, all regard for even the appear-
ance of impartiality vanished, and they threw out the bills by acclamation,
without listening to the remonstrances of the foreman.

The trial by jury is therefore at the present moment not only produc-
tive in Lower Canada of no confidence in the honest administration of
the laws, but also provides impunity for every political offence.

I cannot close this account of the system of criminal justice, without
making some remarks with respect to the body by which it is administered
in its primary stages and minor details, to the great mass of the people of
the Province. 1 mean the magistracy ; and I cannot but express my
regret, that among the few institutions for the administration of justice
throughout the country which have been adopted in Lower Canada from
those of England, should be that of unpaid justices of the peace. I do
not mean in any way to disparage the character, or depreciate the useful-
ness, of that most respectable body in this country. But the warmest
admirer of that institution must admit that, its benefits result entirely from
the peculiar character of the class from which our magistracy is selected ;
and that without the general education, the moral responsibility imposed
by their high station in the eyes of their countrymen, the check exercised
by the opinion of their own class, and of an intelligent and vigilant pub-
lic, and the habits of bublic business, which almost every Englishman
more or less acquires; even the country gentlemen of England could
not wield their legally irresponsible power as justices of the peace to the
satisfaction of their countrymen. What, then, must be conceived of the
working of this institution in a colony by a class over whom none of
these checks exist, and whose station in life and education would alone
H

58

almost universally exclude them from a similar orifice at home ? When
we transplant the institutions of England into our colonies, we ought at
least to take care beforehand that the social state of the colony should
possess those peculiar materials on which alone the excellence of those
institutions depends in the mother country. The body of justices of the
peace scattered over the whole of Lower Canada are named by the Go-
vernor, on no very accurate local information, there being no lieutenants
or similar officers of counties in this, as in the Upper Province. *$ he real
property qualfrcation required for the magistracy is so low, that in the
country parts almost every one possesses it ; and it only excludes some
of the most respectable persons in the cities. In the rural districts the
magistrates have no clerks. The institution has become unpopular among
the Canadians, owing to their general belief that the appointments have
been made with a party and national bias. It cannot be denied that many
most respectable Canadians were long left out of the commission of the
peace, without any adequate cause ; and it is still more undeniable, that
most disreputable persons of both races have found their way into it, and
still continue to abuse the power thus vested in them. Instances of indis-
cretion, of ignorance, and of party feeling, and accusations of venality,
have been often adduced by each party. Whether these representations
be exaggerated or not, or whether they apply to a small or to a large
portion of the magistracy, it is undeniable that the greatest want of con-
fidence in the practical working of the institution exists ; and I am there-
fore of opinion that, whilst this state of society continues, and, above all,
in the present exasperation of parties, a small stipendiary magistracy
would be much better suited to both Upper and Lower Canada.

The police of the Province has always been lamentably defective. No
city, from the lawless and vicious character of a great part of its popula-
tion, requires a more vigilant police than Quebec. Until May, 1836, the
police of this city was regulated by an act which then expired, and was
not renewed, and it consisted of forty-eight watchmen, half of whom
served every night for the whole town. The day police consisted of six
constablesT who were under no efficient controul. On the expiration of
this act there was no night police at all, and murders occurring in the
streets, the inhabitants formed a voluntary patrol for the upper town. —
Lord Gosford, in December, 1837, appointed Mr. Young inspector of
police, with eight policemen under him ; a serjeant and eight men of
the Volunteer Seamen's Company were placed under his order ; and
another magistrate had a corporal and twelve men of the same company
for the police of the lower town. Finding their force wholly insufficient,
receiving daily complaints, and witnessing daily instances of disorder and
neglect, and above all being much pressed to increase the police by the
owners of vessels, who had no power of restraining the desertion of their
crews, I ordered a regular police of thirty-two men to be organized on the
plan of the London police in June last. This body was further augmented
in October to seventy-five; and this number is represented to me by the
inspector as by no means more than sufficient.

In Montreal, where no approach to a general system of police had
been made, I directed Mr. Leclerc^ who had bem appointed a stipendiary
magistrate by Lord Gosford, to organise a force similar to that of Que-
bec. The number of this is now carried, I think, as high as 100.

Throughout the rest of the Province, where the (unctions of a poliro
used to be discharged by the militia, that body being now disorganised.

59

there is, in fact, no police at all. In the course of the autumn, I was in-
formed by Mr. Young, that at St. Catharine's, forty-six miles from Que-
bec, a man, after notoriously committing an assault with intent to mur-
der, was still at large a fortnight after the act; and that no means had
been found of executing a warrant issued against him by a county magis-
trate. As the only means of enforcing the law, Mr. Young was author-
ised to send policemen sworn in as special constables, the place being out
of his jurisdiction ; and by them the arrest was effected. When Theller
and Dodge escaped from the citadel, and were supposed to have taken the
direction of the Kennebec road, no means existed of stopping their flight,
except by sending the police of Quebec to the very frontier of the United
States.

As there was no rural policevthe same step had been taken in the case
of a deserter.

In the course of the preceding account, I have already incidentally
given a good many of the most important details of the provision for
education made in Lower Canada. I have described the general igno-
rance of the people, and the abortive attempt which was made, or rather
which was professed to be made, for the purpose of establishing a general
system of public instruction ; I have described the singular abundance of
a somewhat defective education which exists for the higher classes, and
which is solely in the hands of the Catholic Priesthood. It only remains
that I should add, that though the adults who have come from the old
country are generally more or less educated, the English are hardly bet-
ter off than the French, for the means of education for their children—
and indeed possess scarcely any, except in the Cities.

There exists at present no means of college education for Protestants in
the Province ; and the desire of obtaining general, and still more profes-
sional instruction, yearly draws a great many young men into the United
States.

I can, indeed, add little to the general information possessed by the
Government, respecting the great deficiency of instruction, and of the
means of education in this Province. The Commissioner whom I
appointed to inquire into the state of education in the Province, endea-
voured very properly to make inquiries so minute and ample, that the
real state of things should be laid fully open; and with this view he had,
with great labour, prepared a series of questions, which he had transmitted
to various persons in every parish. At the time when his labours were
brought to a close, together with mine, he had received very few answers;
but as it was desirable that the information which he had thus prepared
the means of obtaining should not be lost, a competent person has been
engaged to receive and digest the returns. Complete information res-
pecting the state of education, and of the result of past attempts to instruct
the people, will thus, before long, be laid before the Government.

The inquiries of the Commissioner were calculated to inspire but slen-
der hopes of the immediate practicability of any attempt to establish a
general and sound system of education for the Province. Not that the
people themselves are indifferent or opposed to such a scheme. I was
rejoiced to find that there existed, among the French population, a very
general and deep sense of their own deficiencies in this respect : and a
great desire to provide means for giving their children those advantages
which had been denied to themselves. Among the English the same
desire was equally felt; and I believe that the population of either origin
would be willing to submit to local assessments for this purpose.

60

The inhabitants of the North American Continent, possessing an amount
of material comfort, unknown to the peasantry of any other part of the
world, are generally very sensible to the importance of education. And
the noble provision which every one of the Northern States of the Union
has gloried in establishing for the education of its youth, has excited a
general spirit of emulation amongst the neighbouring Provinces, and a
desire, which will probably produce some active efforts, to improve their
own educational institutions.

It is, therefore, much to be regretted, that there appear to exist obsta-
cles to the establishment of such a general system of instruction as would
supply the wants, and, I believe, meet the wishes of the entire population.

The Catholic clergy, to whose exertions the French and Irish popula-
tion of Lower Canada are indebted for whatever means of education they
have ever possessed, appear to be very unwilling that the state should in
any way take the instruction of youth out of their hands. Nor do the
clergy of some other denominations exhibit generally a less desire to give
to education a sectarian character, which would be peculiarly mischievous
in this Province, inasmuch as its inevitable effect would be to aggravate
and perpetuate the existing distinctions of origin. But as the laity of
every denomination appear to be opposed to these narrow views, 1 feel
confident that the establishment of a strong popular government in this
Province would very soon lead to the introduction of a liberal and general
system of public education.

I am grieved to be obliged to remark, that the British Government has,
since its possession of this Province done, or even attempted, nothing for
the promotion of general education. Indeed the only matter in which it
has appeared in connection with the subject, is one by no means credita-
ble to it. For it has applied the Jesuits' estates, part of the property
destined for purposes of education, to supply a species of fund for secret
service, and for a number of years it has maintained an obstinate struggle
with the Assembly, in order to continue this misappropriation.

Under the head of the Hospitals, Prisons, and Charitable Institutions of
Lower Canada, I beg to refer to some valuable information collected, by
my direction, by Sir John Doratt, during the exercise of his office of
Inspector General of Hospitals, and Charitable and Literary Institutions,
which will be found in a separate part of the appendix to this report. I
regret that the pressure of more urgent subjects did not allow me time to
institute into these subjects, so searching and comprehensive an inquiry as
I should have desired to make in other circumstances. But there are some
points brought under my notice by Sir John Doratt, to which I think it im-
portant that the attention of Your Majesty's Government should be directed
without delay. I advert to the existing want of any public establishment
for the reception of insane persons either in Lower or Upper Canada; to
the bad stale of the prisons in general, and especially the disgraceful condi-
tion of the gaol of the city of Quebec; to the defects of the quarantine
station at Grosse Isle; to the low and ignorant state of the* medical pro-
fession throughout the rural districts; and to the necessity of a change
in the system of providing for the insane, the invalid poor, and found-
lings, by payments of public moneys to convents for that purpose. It is
evident that considerable abuses exist in the management of several phi-
lanthropic institutions. I have adverted, in another part of my report,
to the subject of pauperism, as connected with emigration ; and the evi-
dence there cited is in some respects confirmed, by the information com-
municated by Sir John Doratt-

61

It is a subject of very just congratulation, that religious differences have
hardly operated as an additional cause of dissension in Lower Canada;
and that a degree of practical toleration, known in very few communities,
has existed in this colony from the period of the conquest down to the
present time.

The French Canadians are exclusively Catholics, and their church has
been left in possession of the endowments which it had at the conquest.
The right to tithe is enjoyed by their priests ; but as it is limited by law
to lands of which the proprietor is a Catholic, the priest loses his tithe
the moment that an estate passes, by sale or otherwise, into the hands of
a Protestant. This enactment, which is at variance with the true spirit
of national endowments for religious purposes, has a natural tendency to
render the clergy averse to the settlement of Protestant in the seigniories.
But the Catholic priesthood of this Province have, to a very remarkable
degree, conciliated the good will of persons of all creeds; and I know of
no parochial clergy in the world whose practice of all the Christian vir-
tues, and zealous discharge of their clerical duties, is more universally
admitted, and has been productive of more beneficial consequences. —
Possessed of incomes sufficient, and even large, according to the notions
entertained in the country, and enjoying the advantage of education, they
have lived on terms of equality and kindness with the humblest and least
instructed inhabitants of the rural districts. Intimately acquainied with
the wants and characters of their neighbours, they have been the promo-
ters and dispensers of charity, and the effectual guardians of the morals
of the people ; and in the general absence of any permanent institutions
of civil government, the Catholic church has presented almost the only
semblance of stability and organization, and furnished the only effectual
support for civilization and order. The Catholic clergy of Lower Ca-
nada are entitled to this expression of my esteem, not only because it is
founded on truth, but because a grateful recognition of their eminent ser-
vices, in resisting the arts of the disaffected, is especially due to them
from one who has administered the government of the Province in these
troubled times.

The Constitutional Act, while limiting the application of the Clergy
Reserves in the Townships to a Protestant Clergy, made no provision for
the extension of the Catholic Clerical institution, in the event of the
French population settling beyond the limits of the Seigniories. Though
I believe that some power exists, and has been in a few cases used, for
the creation of new Catholic Parishes, I am convinced that this absence
of the means of religious instruction has been the main cause of the indis-
position of the French population to seek new settlements, as the increase
of their numbers pressed upon their resources. It has been rightly obser-
ved, that the religious observances of the French Canadians are so inter-
mingled with all their business and all their amusements, that the Priest
and the Church are with them, more than with any other people, the
centres of their little communities. In order to encourage them to spread
their population, and to seek for comfort and prosperity in new settle-
ments, a wise Government would have taken care to aid, in every possible
way, the diffusion of their means of religious instruction.

The Protestant population of Lower Canada have been, of late, some-
what agitated by the question of the Clergy Reserves. The meaning of
the ambiguous phrase ** Protestant Clergy," has been discussed with great
ardour in various quarters ; and each disputant has displayed his inge-

62

nuity in finding reasons for a definition in accordance, with his own incli-
nation, either to the aggrandizment of his own set, 01 the establishment of
religious equality. Owing to the small numbers of the British population —
to the endowment of the Catholic Church, in most of the peopled and
important Districts of the Colony — and, above all, to the much more for-
midable and extensive causes of dissension existing in the Province, the
dispute of the various Protestant denominations for the funds reserved for
a U Protestant Clergy," has not assumed the importance which it has
acquired in Upper Canada. In my account of that Province, I shall give
a more detailed explanation of the present position of this much-disputed
question. I have reason to know, that the apprehension of measures
tending to establish the predominance of a particular creed and Clergy,
has produced an irritation in this Province, which has very nearly deprived
the Crown of the support of some portions of the British population, in a
period of very imminent danger. I must therefore most strongly recom-
mend, that any plan by which the question of Clergy Reserves shall be
set at rest in Upper Canada, should also be extended to the Lower Pro-
vince. The endowments of the Catholic Church, and the services of it9
numerous and zealous Parochial Clergy, have been of the greatest benefit
to the large body of Catholic emigrants from Ireland, who have relied
much on the charitable as well as religious aid, which they have received
from the Priesthood. The Priests have an almost unlimited influence
over the lower classes of Irish; and this influence is said to have been
very vigorously exerted last winter, when it was much needed, to secure
the loyalty of a portion of the Irish during the troubles. The general
loyalty exhibited by the Irish settlers in the Canadas during the last win-
ter, and the importance of maintaining it unimpaired in future times of
difficulty, render it of the utmost moment that the feelings and interests
of the Catholic Clergy and population, should invariably meet with due
consideration from the Government.

Setting on one side the management of the Crown Lands, and the
revenue derived therefrom, which will be treated of fully in another part,
it is not necessary that I should, on the present occasion, enter into any
detailed account of the financial system of Lower Canada, my object
being merely to point out the working of the general system of Govern-
ment, as operating to produce the present condition of the Province. I
need not inquire whether its fiscal, monetary or commercial arrangements,
have been in accordance with the best principles of public economy. —
But I have reason to believe, that improvements may be made in the mode
of raising and expending the Provincial revenue. During my stay in
Canada, the evils of the banking and monetary systems of the Province
forced themselves on my attention. I am not inclined, however, to regard
these evils as having been in anywise influential in causing the late dis-
orders. I cannot regard them as indicative of any more mismanagement
or error, than are observable in the measures of the best Governments,
with respect to questions of so much difficulty ; and though the import-
ance of finding some sufficient remedy for some of these disorders has, as
I shall hereafter explain, very materially influenced my views of the gene-
ral plan to be adopted for the Government of this and the other North
American Colonies, I regard the better regulation of the financial and
monetary systems of the Province as a matter to be settled by the local
Government, when established on a permanent basis.

With the exception of the small amount now derived from the casual
and territorial funds, the public revenue of Lower Canada is derived from

63

duties imposed, partly by Imperial and partly l>y Provincial statutes.—
These duties are, in great proportion, levied upon articles imported into
the colony from Great Britain and foreign countries ; they are collected
at the principal ports by officers of the imperial customs.

The amount of the revenue has within the last four years diminished from
about £150,000 to little more than £100 000 per annum. This diminution
is ascribed principally to the decreased consumption of spirituous liquors,
and some other articles of foreign import, in consequence of the growth
of native manufactures of such articles. Nevertheless, as the permanent
expenditure of the civil government only amounts to about £60,000 a
year, there remains still a considerable surplus to be disposed of for local
purposes, in the mischievous manner which I have described in the pre-
ceding pages. A vigorous and efficient government would find the whole
revenue hardly adequate to its necessities: but in the present state of
things, I consider the existence and application of this surplus revenue as
so prejudicial, that I should, as the less of two evils, recommend a reduc-
tion of the duties levied, were it possible to do this without an equal
diminution of the revenue of Upper Canada, which can by no means
afford it.

The financial relations between these two Provinces are a source of
great and increasing disputes. The greater part, almost the whole of
the imports of Upper Canada entering at the ports of Lower Canada, the
Upper Province has urged and established its claim to a proportion of
the duties levied on them. This proportion is settled, from time to time,
by commissioners appointed from each Province. Lower Canada now
receives about three, and Upper Canada about two fifths of the whole
amount; nor is this the greatest cause of dissension and dissatisfaction.
The present revenue of Upper Canada being utterly inadequate to its
expenditure, the only means that that Province will have of paying the
interest of its debt, will be by increasing its Customs' duties. But as
these are almost all levied in Lower Canada, this cannot be done without
raising the taxation also of the Lower Canadians, who have, as it is, a
large surplus revenue. It was for the better settlement of these points
of difference, that the union of the two Canadas was proposed in 1822;
and the same feeling produces a great part of the anxiety now manifested
for that measure by a portion of the people of Upper Canada.

A considerable revenue is raised from all these Provinces by the Post-
office establishment common to all of them, and subordinate to the Gene-
ral Post-office in England. The surplus revenue, which appears from a
report to the House of Assembly to amount to no less than £10,000 per
annum, is transmitted to England. The Assembly made it a matter of
great complaint that, an important internal public institution of the Pro-
vinces should be entirely regulated and administered by the rulers and
servants of an English public office, and that so large an amount of
revenue, raised entirely without the consent of the colonies, in a manner
not at all free from objections, should be transmitted to the mother coun-
try.* I cannot but say that there is great justice in these complaints,

* "The privilege of franking, possessed by a ftw public officers in this Province, is of a sin-
gular kind. For, as it it is necessary for the public service that such a privilege should be exer-
cised, and as the English Office accords no immunities to the functionaries of a Colonial Govern-
ment, the postage is charged on all franked letters, and the Provincial Treasury has to pay the
amount over to the Post Office. This, in fact, destroys in a £reat measure the utility of the pri-
vilege for public purposes; because public Officers are unwilling to use the post for their commu-
nications, when their doing so diminishes the revenues of the Province."

64

and I am decidedly of opinion that if any plan of an united government
of these Provinces should be adopted, the controul and revenue of the
post-office should be given up to the colony.

For the reasons 1 have before explained, there is hardly the semblance
of direct taxation in Lower Canada for general and local purposes. —
This immunity from taxation has been sometimes spoken of as a great
privilege of the people of Lower Canada, and a great proof of the justice
and benevolence of their government. The description which I have
given of the singularly defective provision made for the discharge of the
most important duties of both the general and the local government will,
I think, make it appear that this apparent saving of the pockets of the
people, has been caused by their privation of many of the instiiutions
which every civilized community ought to possess. A people can hardly
be congratulated on having had at little cost a rude and imperfect ad-
ministration of justice, hardly the semblance of police, no public provi-
sion for education, no lighting, and bad pavements in its cities, and means
of communication so imperfect, that the loss of time, and wear and tear
caused in taking any article to market, may probably be estimated at ten
times the expense of good roads. If the Lower Canadians had heen
subjected, or rather had been taught to subject themselves, to a much
greater amount of taxation, they would probably at this time have been
a much wealthier, a much better governed, a much more civilized, and
a much more contented people.

UPPER CANADA.

The information which I have to give respecting the state of Upper
Canada not having been acquired in the course of my actual administra-
tion of the Government of that Province, will necessarily be much less
ample and detailed than that which I have laid before your Majesty
respecting Lower Canada. My object will be to point out the principal
causes to which a general observation of the Province induces me to
attribute the late troubles; and even this task will be performed with com-
parative ease and brevity, inasmuch as I am spared the labour of much
explanation and proof, by being able to refer to the details which I have
given, and the principles which I have laid down, in describing the insti-
tutions of the Lower Province.

At first sight it appears much more difficult to form an accurate idea
of the state of Upper, than of Lower Canada. The visible and broad
line of demarcation which separates parties by the distinctive characters of
race, happily has no existence in the Upper Province. The quarrel is one
of an entirely English, if not British, population. Like all such quarrels,
it has, in fact, created not two, but several parties; each of which has
some objects in common with some one of those to which it is opposed.
They differ on one point and agree on another ; the sections which unite
together one day, are strongly opposed the next ; and the very party which
acts as one against a common opponent, is in truth composed of divisions
seeking utterly different or incompatible objects. It is very difficult to
make out from the avowals of parties the real objects of their struggles,
and still less easy is it to discover any cause of such importance as would
account for its uniting any large mass of the people in an attempt to
overthrow, by forcible means, the existing form of government.

68

The peculiar geographical character of the Province greatly increases'
the difficulty of obtaining very accurate information. Its inhabitants
scattered along an extensive frontier, with very imperfect means of com-
munication, and a limited and partial commerce, have, apparently, no
unity of interest or opinion. The Province has no great centre with which
all the separate parts are connected, and which they are accustomed to
follow in sentiment and action ; nor is there that habitual intercourse be-
tween the inhabitants of different parts of the country, which, by diffusing
through all a knowledge of the opinions and interests of each, makes a
people one and united, in spite of extent of territory and dispersion of
population. Instead of this, there are many petty local centres, the sen-
timents and the interests (or at least what are fancied to be so) of which,
are distinct, and perhaps opposed. It has been stated to me by intelli-
gent persons from England, who had travelled through the Province for
purposes of business, that this isolation of the different districts from each
other was strikingly apparent in all attempts to acquire information in
one district respecting the agricultural or commercial character of ano-
ther ; and that not only were very gross attempts made to deceive an
inquirer on these points, but that even the information which had been
given in a spirit of perfect good faith, generally turned out to be founded
in great misapprehension. From these causes a stranger who visits any
one of these local centres, or who does not visit the whole, is almost ne-
cessarily ignorant of matters, a true knowledge of which is essential to
an accurate comprehension of the real position of parties, and of the poli-
tical prospects of the country.

The political contest which has so long been carried on in the Assem-
bly-and the press, appears to have been one exhibiting throughout its whole
course the characteristic features of the purely political part of the con-
test in Lower Canada; and. like that, originating in an unwise distribu-
tion of power in the constitutional system of the Province. The financial
disputes which so long occupied the contending parties in Lower Canada,
were much more easily and wisely arranged in the Upper Province ; and
the struggle, though extending itself over a variety of questions of more
or less importance, avowedly and distinctly rested on the demand for
responsibility in the executive government.

In the preceding account of the working of the constitutional system
in Lower Canada, I have described the effect which the irresponsibility
of the real advisers of the Governor had in lodging permanent authority
in the hands of a powerful party, linked together not only by common
party interests, but by personal ties. But in none of the North American
Provinces has this exhibited itself for so long a period, or to such an
extent, as in Upper Canada, which has long been entirely governed by a.
party commonly designated through the Province as the "family com-
pact," a name not much more appropriate than party designations usually
are, inasmuch as there is, in truth, very little of family connection among
the persons thus united. For a long time this body of men, receiving at
times accessions to its numbers, possessed almost all the highest public
offices, by means of which, and of its influence in the Executive Council, it
wielded all the powers of government : it maintained influence in the Legis-
lature by means of its predominance in the Legislative Council ; and ir
disposed of the large number of petty posts which are in the. patronage of
the government all over the Province. Successive Governors, as they

66

came in their turn, are said to have either submitted quietly to its influ-
ence, or, after a short and unavailing struggle, to have yielded to this
well-organized party the real conduct of affairs. The bench, the magis-
tracy, the high offices of the Episcopal Church, and a great part of the
legal profession, are filled by the adherents of this party ; by grant or
purchase they have acquired nearly the whole of the waste lands of the
Province; they are all-powerful in the chartered banks, and, till lately,
shared among themselves almost exclusively all offices of trust and profit.
The bulk of this party consists, for the most part, of native-born inhabi-
tants of the colony, or cf emigrants who settled in it before the last war
with the United States; the principal members of it belong to the church
of England, and the maintenance of the claims of that church has always
been one of its distinguishing characteristics.

A monopoly of power so extensive and so lasting could not fail, in
process of time, to excite envy, create dissatisfaction, and ultimately pro-
voke attack ; and an opposition consequently grew up in the Assembly,
which assailed the ruling party, by appealing to popular principles of
Government — by denouncing the alleged jobbing and profusion of the
official body — and by instituting inquiries into abuses, for the purpose of
promoting reform, and especially economy. The question of the greatest
importance, raised in the course of these disputes, was that of the disposal
of the Clergy Reserves; and, though different modes of applying these
lands, or rather the funds derived from them, were suggested, the Refor-
mers, or Opposition, were generally very successful in their appeals to
the people against the project of the Tory, or official party, which was
that of devoting them exclusively to the maintenance of the English Epis-
copal Church. The Reformers, by successfully agitating this and various
economical questions, obtained a majority. Like almost all popular
Colonial parties, it managed its power with very little discretion and skill —
offended a large number of the constituencies — and, being baffled by the
Legislative Council, and resolutely opposed by all the personal and official
influence of the official body — a dissolution again placed it in a minority
in the Assembly. This turn of fortune was not confined to a single
instance ; for neither party has for some time possessed the majority in
two successive Parliaments. The present is the fifth of these alternating
Houses of Assembly.

The Reformers, however, at last discovered that success in the elections
insured them very little practical benefit; for the official party, not being
removed when it failed to command a majority in the Assembly, still conti-
nued to wield all the powers of the Executive Government — to strengthen
itself by its patronage — and to influence the policy of the Colonial Gov-
ernor, and of the Colonial Department at home. By its secure majority
in the Legislative Council, it could effectually control the legislative pow-
ers of the Assembly. It could cho^e its own moment for dissolving hostile
Assemblies; and could always insure, for those that were favourable to
itself, the tenure of their seats for the full term of four years allowed by
the law. Thus the Reformers found that their triumph at elections could
not, in any way, facilitate the progress of their views, while the Executive
Government remained constantly in the hands of their opponents. They
rightly judged that, if the higher offices and the Executive Council were
always held by those who could command a majority in the Assembly, the
constitution of the Legislative Council was a matter of very little moment ;
inasmuch as the advisers of the Governor could always rake care, that it*

67

composition should be modified, so as to suit their own purposes. They
concentrated their powers, therefore, for the purpose of obtaining the res-
ponsibility of the Executive Council ; and 1 cannot help contrasting the
practical good sense of the English Reformers of Upper Canada, with the
jess prudent course of the French majority in the Assembly of Lower
Canada, as exhibited in the different demands of constitutional change,
most earnestly pressed by each. Both, in fact, desired the same object —
namely, an extension of popular influence in the Government. The
Assembly of Lower Canada attacked the Legislative Council — a body, of
which the constitution was certainly the most open to obvious theoretical
objections on the part of all the advocates of popular institutions; but, for
the same reason, most sure of finding powerful defendants at home. The
Reformers of Upper Canada paid little attention to the composition of the
Legislative Council, and diiected their exertions to obtaining such an
alteration of the Executive Council as might have been obtained without
any derangement of the constitutional balance of power; but they well
knew, that if once they obtained possession of the Executive Council, and
the higher offices of the Province, the Legislative Council would soon be
unable to offer any effectual resistance to their meditated reforms.

It was upon this question of the responsibility of the Executive Council,
that the great struggle has, for a long time, been carried on between the
official party and the Reformers ; for the official party, like all parties long
in power, was naturally unwilling to submit itself to any such responsibility
as would abridge its tenure, or cramp its exercise of authority. Reluctant
to acknowledge any responsibility to the people of the Colony, this party
appears to have paid a somewhat refractory and nominal submission to
the Imperial Government — relying, in fact, on securing a virtual inde-
pendence, by this nominal submission to the distant authority of the
Colonial Department, or to the powers of a Governor, over whose policy
they were certain, by their facilities of access, to obtain a paramount
influence.

The views of the great body ©f reformers appear to have been limited, accord-
ing to their favourite expression, to the making the colonial constitution " an exact
transcript of that of Great Britain"; and they only desired that the Crown should,
in Upper Canada, as at home, intrust the administration of affairs to men possess-
ing the confidence of the Assembly. It cannot be doubted, however, that there
were many of the party who wished to assimilate the institutions of the Province
rather to those of the United States than to those of the mother country. A few
persons, chiefly of American origin, appear to have entertained these designs
from the outset; but the number had at last been very mueh increased by the des-
pair which many of those who started with more limited views, conceived of their
being ever carried into effect, under th*^ existing form of government.

Each party, while it possessed the ascendancy, has been accused by its opponents
of having abused its power over the public funds, in those modes of local jobbing
which 1 have described as so common in the North 4merican Colonies. This,
perhaps, is to be attributed partly to the circumstances adverted to above, as in-
creasing the difficulty of obtaining any accurate information as to the real circum-
stances of the Province. From these causes it too often happened, that the mem-
bers of the House of Assembly come to the meeting of the legislature ignorant of
the real character of the general interests intrusted to their guardianship, intent
only on promoting sectional objects, and anxious chiefly to secure for the county
they happen to represent, or the district with which they are connected, as large
a proportion as possible of any funds which the legislature may have at its disposal.
In Upper Canada, however, the means of doing this were never so extensive as
those possessed by the Lower Province; and the great works which the Province

commenced on a very extended scale, aud executed in a spirit of great careless-
ness and profusion, have left so little surplus revenue, that this Province alone
among the North American Colonies has, fortunately for itself, been compelled
to establish a system of local assessments, and to leave local works, in a great
measure, to the energy and means of the localities themselves. It is asserted,
however, that the nature of those great works, and the manner in which -they
were carried on, evinced merely a regard for local interests, and a disposition to
strengthen party influence. The inhabitants of the less thickly peopled districts
complained, that the revenues of the Province were employed in works by which
only the frontier population would benefit. The money absorbed by undertak-
ings which they described as disproportioned to the resources and to the wants
of the Province would, they alleged, have sufficed to establish practicable means
of communication over the whole country ; and they stated, apparently not with-
out foundation, that had this latter course been pursued, the population and the
resources of the Province would have been so augmented as to make the works
actually undertaken both useful and profitable. The carelessness and profusion
which marked the execution of these works, the management of which, it was
complained, was intrusted chiefly to members of the ruling party, were also as-
sumed to be the result of a deliberate purpose, and to be permitted, if not encour-
aged, in order that a faw individuals might be enriched at the expense of the
community. Circumstances to which I shall hereafter revert, by which the fur-
ther progress of these works has been ckecked, and the large expenses incurred
in bringing them to their present state of forwardness have been rendered unavail-
ing, have given greater force to these complaints, and, in addition to the discontent
produced by the objects of the expenditure, the governing party has been made
responsible for a failure in the accomplishment of these objects, attributable to
causes over which it had no control. But, to whatever extent these practices
may have been carried, the course of the parliamentary contest in Upper Canada
has not been marked by that singular neglect of the great duties of a legislative
body, which I have remarked in the proceedings of the parliament of Lower
Canada. The statute book of the Upper Province abounds with useful and well-
constructed measures of reform, and presents an honourable contrast to that of
the Lower Province.

While the parties were thus struggling, the operation of a cause, utterly uncon-
nected with their disputes, suddenly raised up a very considerable third party,
which began to make its appearance among the political disputants about the
time the quarrel was at its height. I have said that in Upper Canada there is no
animosity of races ; there is nevertheless a distinction of origin, which has exer-
cised a very important influence on the composition of parties, and appears likely,
sooner or later, to become the prominent and absorbing element of political divi-
'sion. The official and reforming parties, which 1 have described, were both com-
posed, for the most part, and were almost entirely led, by native-born Canadians,
American settlers or emigrants, of a very aneient date; and as one section of this,
more ancient population, possessed, so another was the only body of persons that
claimed, the management of affairs, and the enjoyment of offics conferring emolu-
ment orpower,until the extensive emigration from GreatBritain. which followed the
disastrous period of 1825 and 1826, changed the state of things, by suddenly doubl-
ing the population, and introducing among the ancient disputants for power an
entirely new class of persons. The new-comers, however, did not for a long time
appear as a distinct party in the politics of Upper Canada. A large number of the
higher class of emigrants, particularly the half-pay officers, who were induced
to settle in this Province, had belonged to the Tory party in England, and, in
conformity with their ancient predilections, naturally arrayed themselves on the
side of the official party, contending with the representatives of the people. The
mass of the humbler order of emigrants, accustomed in the mother country to
complain of the corruption and profusion of the Government, and to seek for a
reform of abuses by increasing the popular influence in the representative body,
arrayed themselves on the side of those who represented the people, and attacked
oligarchical power and abuses ; but there was still a great difference of opinion

69

between each of the two Canadian parties and that section of the British which
for a while acted with it Each of the Canadian parties, while it differed with the
other about the tenure of political powers in the colon}', desired almost the same
degree of practical independence of the mother country; each felt and each
beirayed in its political conduct a jealousy of the emigrants, and a wi.-h to main-
tain the powers of office and the emoluments of tiie professions in the handsof per-
sons born or long resident in the the colony. The British, on the contrary, to
whichever party they belong, appear to agree in desiring that the connexion with
the mother country should be drawn closer. They differ very little among them-
selves, I imagine, in desiring such a change as should assimilate the government
of Upper Canada, in spirit as well as in form, to the government of England,
retaining an executive sufficiently powerful to curb popular excesses, and giving
to the majority of the people, or to such of them as the less liberal would trust
with political rights, some substantial control over the administration of affairs.
But the great common object was, and is, the removal of those disqualifications
to which British emigrants are subject, so that they might feel as citizens, instead
of aliens, in the land of their adoption.

Such was the state of parties when Sir F Head, on assuming the government
of the colony, dismissed from the Executive Council some of the members who
were most obnoxious to the House of Assembly, and requested three individuals
to succeed them. Two of these gentlemen, Dr. Rolph and Mr. R. Baldwin, were
connected with the reforming party, and the third, Mr. Dunn, was an English-
man, who had held the office of Receiver-General for nearly 14 years, and up to
that time had abstained from any interference in politics These gentlemen were
at first reluctant to take office, because they feared that, as there were still three
of the former Council left, they would be constantly maintaining a doubtful strug-
gle for the measure^ which they considered necessary. They were, however, at
length induced to forego their scruples, chiefly upon the representations of some
of their friends, that when they had a Governor who appeared sincere in his pro-
fessions of reform, and who promised them his entire confidence, it was neither
generous nor prudent to persist in a refusal which might be taken to imply dis-
trust of his sincerity, and they accordingly accepted office. Among the first acts
of the Governor, after the appointment of this council, was, however, the nomi-
nation to some vacant offices of individuals, who were taken from the old official
party, and this without any communication with his Council These appoint-
ments were attacked by the House of Assembly, and the new Council, finding
that their opinion was never asked upon these or other matters, and that the)'
were seemingly to be kept in ignorance of all those public measures which popu-
lar opinion, nevertheless, attributed to their advice, remonstrated privately on
the subject xv'v h the Governor. Sir Francis desired them to make a formal repre-
sentation to him on the subject ; they did so, and this produced such a reply from
him, as left them no choice but to resign. The occasion of the differences which
had caused the resignation was made the subject of communication between the
Governor and the Assembly, so that the whole community were informed of the
grounds of the dispute.

The contest which appeared to be thus commenced on the question of the responsi-
bility of the Executive Council was really decided on very different grounds Sir F.
Head, who appears to have thought that the maintenance of the connexion with
Great Britain depended upon his triumph over the majority of i he assembly, embark-
ed in the contest with a determination to use every influence in his power in order
to bring it to a successful issue. He succeeded, in fact, in putting the issue in
such a light before the Province, that a great portion of the people really imag-
ined that they were called upon to decide the question of separation by their votes.
The dissolution, on which he ventured when he thought the public mind suffi-
ciently ripe, completely answered his expectations. The British, in particular,
were roused by the proclaimed danger to the connexion with the mother country;
they were indignant at some portions of the conduct and speeches of certain
members of the late majority, which seemed to mark a determined preference of
American oyer British institutions. They were irritated by indications of hos*

70

lility to British emigration, which they saw, or fancied they saw, in some receui
proceedings of the Assembly. Above all, not only they, but a great many others,
had marked with envy the stupendous public works which were at that period
producing their effect in the almost marvellous growth of the wealth and popula-
tion of the neighbouring state of New York; and they reproached the Assembly
with what they considered an unwise economy in preventing the undertaking, or
even completion, of similar works, that might, as they fancied, have produced a
similar development of the resources of Upper Canada. The general support of
the British determined the elections in favour of the Government ; and though
very large and close minorities, which in many cases supported the defeated can-
didates, marked the force which the Reformers could bring into the field, even in
spite of the disadvantages under which they laboured from the momentary pre-
judices against them, and the unusual manner in which the Crown, by its repre-
sentative, appeared to make itself a party in an electioneering contest, the result
was the return of a very large majority, hostile in politics to that of the late As*
sembly.

It is rather singular, however, that the result which Sir F. Head appears
really to have aimed at was by no means secured by this apparent triumph. His
object in all his previous measures, and in the nomination of the Executive Coun-
cillors, by whom he replaced the retiring members, was evidently to make the
council a means of administrative independence for the Governor. Sir F. Head
would seem to have been, at the commencement of his administration, really
desirous of effecting certain reforms which he believed to be needful, and of res-
cuing the substantial power of the government from the hands of the party by
which it had been so long monopolized. The dismissal of the old members of the
Executive Council was the consequence of this intention ; but, though willing to
take measures for the purpose of emancipating himself from the thraldom in
which it was stated that other Governors had been held, he could not acquiesce in
the claims of the House of Assembly to have a really responsible Colonial Execu-
tive. The result of the elections was to give him, as he conceived, a House of
Assembly pledged to support him, as Governor, in the exercise of the independent
authority he had claimed. On the very first occasion, however, on which he
attempted to protect an officer of the Government, unconnected with the old
official party, from charges which, whether well or ill founded, were obviously
brought forward on personal grounds, he found that the new house was even
more determined than its predecessor to assert its right to exercise a substantial
control over the Government; and that unless he was disposed to risk a collision
with both branches of the Legislature, then composed of similar materials, and
virtually under one influence, he must succumb. Unwilling to incur this risk,
when, as he justly imagined, there was no party upon whose support he could
rely to bear him safely through the contest, he yielded the point. Although the
committee appointed to inquire into the truth of the charges made against Mr.
Hepburn refused to adopt a report confirming these charges prepared by their
chairman (by whom the accusation had been brought forward, and by whom the
committee was virtually nominated), Sir F. Head persuaded the individual in
question to resign his office, and to take one of very inferior emolument From
that time he never attempted to assert the independence which the new House of
Assembly had been elected to secure. The Government consequently reverted
in effect to the party which he had found in office when he assumed the governor-
ship, and which it had been his first act to dispossess. In their hands it stilt
remains ; and I must state that it is the general opinion that never was the power
of the " family compact" so extensive or so absolute as it has been from the first
meeting of the existing Parliament down to the present time

It may, indeed, be fairly said, that the real result of Sir F. Head's policy was
to establish that very administrative influence of the leaders of a majority in thf*
Legislature which he had so obstinately disputed. The Executive Councillors of
his nomination, who seem to have taken office almost on the express condition of
being mere ciphers, are not, in fact then, the real Government of the Province.
It is said that the new officers of Government whom Sir F. Head appointed Aom

71

without the pale of official eligibility feel more apprehension of the present house
than, so far as can be judged, was ever felt by their predecessors with regard to
the most violent of the reforming Houses of Assembly. Their apprehension, how-
ever, is not confined to the present house ; they feel that, under no conceivable
contingency, can they expect an Assembly disposed to support them ; and they
accordingly appear to desire such a change in the colonial system as might make
them dependent upon the Imperial Government alone, and secure them against
all interference from the Legislature of the Province, whatever party should
obtain a preponderance in the Assembly. (

While the nominal Government thus possesses no real power, the Legislature,
by whose leaders the substantial power is enjoyed, by no means possesses so much
of the confidence of the people as a Legislature ought to command, even from
those who differ from it on the questions of the day. I say this without meaning
to cast any imputation on the members of the House of Assembly, because, in
fact, the circumstances under which they were elected were such as to render
them peculiarly objects of suspicion and reproach to a number of their country-
men. They were accused of having violated their pledges at the election. It
is said that many of them came forward, and were elected, as being really
Reformers, though opposed to any such claims to colonial independence as might
involve a separation from the mother country. There seems to be no doubt that
in several places where the Tories succeeded, the electors were merely desirous
of returning members who would not hazard any contest with England by the
assertion of claims which, from the proclamation of the Lieutenant-Governor, they
believed to be practically needless; and who should support Sir F. Head in those
economical reforms which the country desired far more than political changes —
reforms, for the sake of which alone political changes had been sought. In a
number of other instances, too, the elections were carried by the unscrupulous
exercise of the influence of the Government, and by a display of violence on the
part of the Tories, who were emboldened by the countenance afforded to them
by the authorities. It was stated, but I believe without any sufficient foundation,
that the Government made grants of land to persons who had no title to them, in
order to secure their votes. This report originated in the fact, that patents for
persons who were entitled to grants, but had not taken them out, were sent down
to the polling places, to be given to the individuals entitled to them, if they were
disposed to vote for the Government candidate. The taking such measures, in
order to secure their fair right of voting to the electors in a particular interest,
must be considered rather as an act of official favouritism, than as an electoral fraud.
But we cannot wonder that the defeated party put the very worst construction
on acts which gave some ground for it ; and they conceived, in consequence, a
strong resentment against the means by which they believed that the represen-
tative of the Crown had carried the elections, his interference in which in any
way was stigmatized by them as a gross violation of constitutional privilege and
propriety.

It cannot be matter of surprise, that such facts and such impressions produced
in the country, an exasperation and a despair of good Government, which extended
far beyond those who had actually been defeated at the poll. For there was nothing
in the use which the leaders of the Assembly have made of their power, to soften
the discontent excited by their alleged mode of obtaining it. Many even of those
who had supported the successful candidates, were disappointed in every expecta-
tion which they had formed of the policy to be pursued by their new representatives.
No economical reforms were introduced. The Assembly, instead of supporting the
Governor, qompelled his obedience to itself, and produced no change in the admi-
nistration of affairs, except that of re-instating the " Family Compact" in power.
On some topics, on which the feelings of the people were very deeply engaged, as
for instance the Clergy Reserves, the Assembly is accused of having shown a dis-
position to act in direct defiance of the known sentiments of a vast majority of its
constituents. The dissatisfaction arising from chese causes was carried to its height
by an act. that appeared in defiance of all Constitutional right, to prolong the
power of a majority which, k was supposed, counted on not being able to retain its

n

existence after another appeal to the people. This was the passing an Act pre-
venting the dissolution of the existing1, as well as any future Assembly, on the
demise of the Crown. The Act was passed in expectation of the approaching
decease of His lare Majesty; and it has, in fact, prolonged the existence of the
present Assembly from the period of a single year, to one of four. It is said that
this step is justified by the example of the other North American Colonies. Bur
it is certain, that it nevertheless caused very great dissatisfaction, and was
regRrded as an unbecoming usurpation- of power.

(It was the prevalence of the general dissatisfaction thus caused, that emboldened
the parties who instigated the insurreetion, to an attempt which may be charac-
terised as having been as foolishly contrived and ill-conducted, as it was wicked
and treasonable. This out-break, which common prudence and good management
would have prevented from coming to a head, was promptly quelled by the alac-
rity with which the population, and especially the British portion of it, rallied round
the Government. The proximity of the American frontier — the nature of the" bor-
der country — and the wild and daring character, together with the periodical want
of employment of its population — have, unfortunately, enabled a few desperate
exiles to continue the troubles oftheir country, by means of the predatory gangs
which have, from time to time, invaded and robbed, under the pretext of revohr-
tionizing the Province. But the general loyalty of the population has been evinced
by the little disposition that has been exhibited by any portion of it to accept of
the proffered aid of the refugees and foreign invaders, and by the unanimity with
which all have turned out to defend their Country.

It has not, indeed, been exactly ascertained what proportion of the inhabitants
of Upper Canada were prepared to join Mackenzie, in his treasonable enterprise,
or were so disposed that we may suppose they would have arrayed themselves on
his side, had he obtained any momentary success, as indeed was for some days
within his grasp Even if I were convinced that a large proportion of the popula-
tion would, under any circumstances, have lent themselves to his projects, I should
be inclined to attribute such a disposition jnerely to the irritation produced by
those temporary causes of dissatisfaction with the Government of the Province,
which I have specified, and not to any settled design on the part of any great
number, either to subvert existing institutions, or to change their present connec-
tion with Great Britain for a junction with the United States. 1 am inclined to
view the insurrectionary movements which did take place as indicative of no deep-
rooted disaffection — and to believe, that almost the entire body of the Reformers
of this Province sought only, by Constitutional means, to obtain those objects for
which they had so long peaceably struggled, before the unhappy troubles occa-
sioned By the violence of a few unprincipled adventurers and heated enthusiasts.

It cannot, however, be doubted, that the events of the past year have greatly
increased the difficulty of settling the disorders of Upper Canada A degree of
discontent, approaching, if not amounting to disaffection, has gained considerable
ground. The causes of dissatisfaction continue to act on the minds of the Refor-
mers; and their hope of redress, under the present order of things, has been
seriously diminished. The exasperation caused by the conflict itself — the suspi-
cions and terrors of that trying period — and the use made by the triumphant party
of the power thrown into their hands — have heightened the passions which existed
before. It certainly appeared too much as if the rebellion had beer, purposely
invited by the Government — and the unfortunate men who took part in it delibe-
rately drawn into a trap, by those who subsequently inflicted so severe a punish-
ment on them for their error. It seemed, too, as if the dominant party made use
of the occasion afforded it by the real guilt of a few desperate and imprudent men,
in order to persecute or disable the whole body of their political opponents. A
great number of perfectly innocent individuals were thrown into prison, and suf-
fered in person, property and character. The whole body of Reformers were
subjected to suspicion, and to harassing proceedings, instituted by Magistrates
whose political leanings were notoriously adverse to them. Severe laws wer*
passed, under colour of which, individuals very generally esteemed were punished
without any form of trial.

73

The two persons who suffered the extreme penalty of the law unfortunate?/
engaged a great share of the public sympathy ; their pardon had been solicited in
petitions signed, it is generally asserted, by no less than 30,000 of their country-
men. The rest of the prisoners were detained in confinement a considerable time.
A large number of the subordinate actors in the insurrection were severely pun-
ished ; and public anxiety was raised to the highest pitch, by the uncertainty res-
pecting the fate of the others, who were, from time to time, partially released.— *
It was not until the month of October last, that the whole of the prisoners were
disposed of, and a partial amnesty proclaimed, which enabled the large numbers
who had fled th<» country, and so long, and at such imminent hazard, hung on its
frontier, to return in security to their homes. I make no mention of the reasons
which, in the opinion of the local Government, rendered these different steps advi-
sable, because my object is not to discuss the propriety of its conduct, but to point
eat the effect which it necessarily had in augmenting irritation.

The whole party of the Reformers — a patty which I am inclined to estimate as
very considerable, and which has commanded large majorities indifferent Houses
of Assembly — has certainly felt itseii" assailed by the policy pursued. It sees the
whole powers of Government wielded by its enemies, and imagines that it can per-
ceive also a determination to use these powers inflexibly against all the objects
which it most values The wounded private feelings of individuals, and the defeated
public policy of a party, combine to spread a wide and serious irritation ; but I do
not believe that this has yet proceeded so far as to induce at all, a general disposi-
tion to look to violent measures for redress. The Reformers have been gradually
recovering their hopes of regaining their ascendancy by Constitutional means;
the sudden pre-eminence which thecjuestion of the Clergy Reserves and Rectories
has again assumed during the last summer, appears to have increased their influ-
ence ai.d confidence; and I have no reason to believe, that anything can make
them generally and decidedly desirous of separation, except some such act of the
Imperial Government as shall deprive them of all hopes of obtaining real admi-
nistrative power, even in the event of their again obtaining a majority in the
Assembly. Wirh such a hope before them, I believe that they will remain in
tranquil expectation of the result of the general election, which cannot be delayed
beyond the summer of 1S40.

To describe the character and objects of the other parties in this Province would
not be \ery easy ; and their variety and complication is so great, that it would
be of no great advantage were I to explain the various shades of opinion that
mark each. In a very laboured essay, which was published in Toronto, during
my stay in Canada, there was an attempt to classify the various pat ties in the Pro-
vince under six different heads. Some of these were classified according to strictly
political opinions — some according to religion — and some according to birth-place;
«nd each party, it was obvious, contained in its ranks a great many who would,
according to the designations used, have as naturally belonged to some other. —
But it is obvious, from all acconnts of the different parties, that the nominal Gov-
ernment, that is, the majority of the Executive Council, enjoy the confidence of
no considerable party — and that the party called the " Family Compact," which,
possesses the majority in both branches of the Legislature, is, in fact, supported
at present by no very large number of persons of any party. None are more
hostile to them than the greater part of that large and spirited British born popu-
lation, to whose steadfast exertions the preservation of the Colony, during the last-
winter, is mainly attributable — and who see, with indignation, that a monopoly o£
power and profit is still retained by a small body of men, which seems bent on
excluding, from any participation in it, the British emigrants. Zealously co-
operating with the dominant party, in resisting treason and foreign invasion, this
portion of the population, nevertheless, entertains a general distrust and dislike ofi
them; and though many of the most prominent of the British emigrants have
always acted, and still invariably act, in opposition to the Reformers, and dissent
from their, views of responsible Government, I- am very much inclined to think that
they, and certsinlv the great mass of their countrymen, really desire such a res-

K

74

ponsfollity of the Government, as would break up the present monopoly of office
and influence.

Besides those causes of complaint, which are common to the whole of theColony,
the British settlers have many peculiar to themselves. The emigrants who have
settled in the country within the last ten years, are supposed to comprise half the
population. They complain that while the Canadians are desirous of having Bri-
tish capital and labour brought into the Colony, by means of which their fields
may be cultivated, and the value of their unsettled possessions increased, they
refuse to make the Colony really attractive to British skill and British capitalists.
They say that an Englishman, emigrating to Upper Canada, is practically as much
an alien in that British Colony, as he would be if he were to emigrate to the United
States. He may equally purchase and hold lands, or invest his capital in trade, in
one country as in the other, and he may in either exercise any mechanical avoca-
tion, and perform any species of manual labour This, however, is the extent of
his privileges; his English qualifications -avail him little or nothing. He cannot,
if a surgeon, licensed to act in England, practise without the license of a Board of
Examiners in the Province. If an attorney, he has to submit to an apprenticeship
of five years, before he is allowed to practise. If a barrister, he is excluded from
the profitable part of his profession ; and, though allowed to practise at the bar,
the permission thus accorded to him is practically of no use in a country where, as
nine attorneys out of ten are barristers also, there can be no business for a mere
barrister. Thus a person who has been admitted to the English bar, is compelled
to serve an apprenticeship of three years to a Provincial lawyer.

By an Act passed last Session, difficulties are thrown in the way of the employ-
ment of capital in banking, which have a tendency to preserve the monopoly pos-
sessed by the Chartered Banks of the Colony, in which the Canadian party are
supreme — and the influence of which is said to be employed directly as an instru-
ment for upholding the political supremacy of the party. Under the system, also,
of selling land pursued by the Government, an individual does not acquire a
patent for his land until he has paid the whole of the purchase-money — a period
of from four to ten years, according as his purchase is a Crown or Clergy lot;
and until the patent issues he has no right to vote. In some of the new States of
America, on the contrary, especial!, in Illinois, an individual may practise as a
surgeon or lawyer almost immediately on his arrival in the country — and he has
every right of citizenship after a residence of six months in the State. An English-
man is therefore, in effect. less an alien in a foreign country, than in one which
forms a part of the British Empire Such are the superior advantages of theUnited
States at present, that nothing but the feeling, that in the one country he is among
a more kindred people — under the same laws — and in a society whose habits ari<fc
sentiments are similar to those to which he has been accustomed — can induce
an Englishman to settle in Canada, in preference to the States; and if in the
former he is deprived of rights whic i he obtains in the latter, though a foreigner,
it is not to be wondered at that he should, in many cases, give the preference to
the land in which he is trea>*d most as a citizen. It is very possible, that then*
are but few cases in which the departure of an Englishman from Upper Canada
to the States, can be traced directly to any of these circumstances in particular;
yet the state of society and of feeling which they have engendered, has been among
the main causes of the great extent of re-emigration to the new States of the Union.
It operates, too, still more to deter emigration from England to the Provinces :
and thus both to retard the advance of the Colony, and to deprive the Mother
Country of one of the principal advantages, on acconnt of which the existence of
Colonies is desirable — the field which they afford for the employment of her sur-
plus population and wealth The native Canadians, however, to whatever political
party they may belong, appear to be unanimous in the wish to preserve these
exclusive privileges. The course of legislation, since the tide of emigration set
>cno$t strongly to the country, and while under its influence the value of all species
of property was rising, and the resources of the Province were rapidly, and (for
the old inhabitants) profitably developed, has been to draw a yet more marked
line between the two classes, instead of obliterating the former distinctions. The

75

law excluding English lawyers from practise is of recent origin. The Speaker of
the Reforming House of Assembly, Mr. Bidwell, was among the strongest oppo-
nents of any alteration of that law, which might render it less rigidly exclusive —
and, on more than one occasion, gave his casting vote against a bill having for its
object the admission of an English lawyer to practise in the Province, without
serving a previous apprenticeship. This point is of more importance in a Colony
than it would at first sight appear to any one accustomed only to such a state of
society as exists England. The members of the legal profession are, in effect, the
leaders of the people, and the class from which, in a larger proportion than from
any other class, legislators are taken It is, therefore, not merely a monopoly of
profit, but, to a considerable extent, a monopoly of power — which the present body
of lawyers contrive, by means of this exclusion, to secure to themselves. INo man
of mature age, emigrating to a Colony, could afford to lose five years of his life in
an apprenticeship from which he could acquire neither learning nor skill. The
few professional men, therefore, who have gone to Upper Canada, have turned
their attention to other pursuits, retaining, however, a strong feeling of discontent
against the existing order of tilings. And many who might have emigrated remain
at hou:e, or seek some other Colony, where their course is not impeded by similar
restrictions.

But as in Upper Canada, under a law passed immediately after the last war
with the United States, Ameiican citizens are forbidden to hold land, it is of
the more consequence that the country should be made as attractive as possible
to tne emigrating middle classes of Great Britain, the only class from which an
accession of capital, to be invested in the pui chase or improvement of lands, can
be hoped for. The policy of the law just referred to may well be doubted,
whether the interests of the colony or of the mother country are considered, since
the wealth and activity, and consequent commerce of the Province, would have
been greatly augmented, had its natural advantages of soil and position been al-
lowed to operate, in attracting those who were most aware of their existence, and
eminently fitted to aid in their development ; and there is great reason to believe,
that the uncertainty of the titles which many Americans possess to the land on.
which they have squatted since the passing of this law, is the main cause of much
of the disloyalty, or rather very luke-warm loyalty, evinced by that population
in the Western District. But when this exclusion had been determined upon, it
would at least have been wise to have removed everything that might have seem-
ed like an- obstacle in the way of those for whom the land was to be kept open,
instead of closing the principal avenues to wealt.i or distinction against them, in
a spirit of petty provincial jealously.

The great practical question, however, on which these various parties have
for a long time been at issue, and which has within a very few months again
become the prominent matter in debate, is that of the Clergy Reserves. The
•prompt and satisfactory decision of this question is essential to the pacification of
Canada ; and as it was one of the most important questions referjed to me for in-
vestigation, it is necessary that 1 should slate it fully, and not shrink from making
known the light in which it ha- presented itself to my mind. The disputes on this
subject are now of long standing. By the Constitutional Act a certain portion of
the land in every township was set apart for the maintenance of a *' Piotestant
Clergy " In that portion of this report which treats of the management of the
waste lands, the economical mischiefs which have resulted from this appropriation
of territory are fully detailed; ami the present disputes relate solely to (he appli-
cation, and not to the mode of raising the funds, which are now derived from the
sale of the clergy reserves. Under the term " Protestant Clergy " the clergy of
the Church of England have always claimed the sole enjoyment of these funds.
The members of the Church' of ScotLmd have claimed to be put entirely on a
level with the Church of England, and have demanded that these funds should
be equally divided between both. The various denominations of Protestant Dis-
senters have asserted that the term includes them, and that out of these funds an
equal provision should be made for all Christians who do not belong to the Church
of Rome. But a great body of all Protestant denominations, and the numerous

76

Catholics who inhabit the Province, have maintained that any Huch favour to-
wards any one, or even all of the Protestant sects, would be most unadvisable, and
have either demanded the equal application of those funds to the purposes of all
religious creeds whatsoever, or have urged the propriety of leaving eacli body of
religionists to maintain its own establishment, to repeal or disregard the law, and
to apply the clergy funds to the general purposes of the Government, or to the
Support of a general svstem of education.

The supporters of these different schemes having long contended in this Pro-
vince, and greatly inconvenienced the Imperial Government by constant referen-
ces to its decision, the Secretary of State for the Colonies proposed to leave the
determination of the matter to the Provincial Legislatures, pledging the Imperial
Government to do its utmost to get a Parliamentary sanction to whatever course
they might adopt. Two bills in consequence passed the last House of Assembly,
in which the Reformers had the ascendancy, applying these funds to the purposes
of education; and both these bills were rejected by the Legislative Council.

During all this time, however, though much irritation had been caused by the
exclusive claims of the Church of England, and the favour shown by the Govern-
ment to one, and that a small religious community, the Clergy of that Church,
though an endowed, were not a dominant priesthood. They had a far larger
share of the public money than the Clergy of an}' other denomination, but they
had no exclusive privileges, and no authcriiy, save such as might spring from
the efficient discharge of their sacred duties, or from the energy, ability, or
influence of members of their body. But the last public act of Sir John Colborne
before quitting the government of the Province in 1835, which was the establish-
ment of the 57 Rectories, has completely changed the aspect of the question. It
is understood that every Rector possesses nil the spiritual and other privileges
enjoyed by an English Rector; and that though he may have no right to levy
tithes, (for even this has been made a question) he is in all other respects in pre-
cisely the same position as a Clergyman of the Established Church in England.
This is regarded by all other teachers of religion in the country as having at
once degraded them to a position of legal inferiority to the Clergy of the Church
of England ; and it has been resented most warmly. In the opinion of many
persons, this was the chief predisposing cause of the recent insurrection, and it
is an abiding and unabated cause of discontent. Nor is this to be wondered at.
The Cnurch of England in Upper Canada, by numbering in its ranks all those
who belong to no other sect, represents itself as being more numerous than any
single denomination of Christians in the country. Even admitting, however, ihe
justice of the principle upon which this enumeration proceeds, and giving that
Church credit for all that it thus claims, its number could not amount to one-third,
probably not a fourth, of the population. It is not, therefore, to be expected
that the other sects, three at least of whom — the Methodists, the Presbyterians,
and the Catholics — claim to be individually more numerous than the Church of
England, should acquiesce quietly in the supremacy thus given to it. And it is
equally natural that the English Dissenters and Irish Catholics, remembering
the position which they have occupied at home, and the long and painful struggle
through which alone they have obtained the imperfect equality they now possess,
should refuse to acquiesce for themselves in the creation of a similar establish-
ment in their new country, and thus to bequeath to their children a strife as
arduous and embittered as that from which they have so recently and imperfectly
escaped.

But for this act, it would have been possible, though highly impolitic, to have
allowed the Clergy Reserves to remain upon their former undetermined and
unsatisfactory footing. But the question as to the application of this property
must now be settled, if it is intended that the Province is to be free from violent
and perilous agitation. Indeed, the whole controversy, which has been in a great
measure suspended by the insurrection, was in the course of last summer revived
with more heat than ever by the most inopportune arrival in the colony of opi-
nions given by the English law officers of the Crown, in favour of the legality of
the establishment of the rectories, Since that period the question has again

77

f

absorbed public attention: and it is quite clear tint it is upon this practical point
that issue must sooner or later be joined on all the constitutional questions to
which I have previously adverted. I am well aware that there are not wanting"
some who represent the agitation of this question as merely the result of its pre-
sent unsettled character, and who assert, that if the claims of the English church
to the exclusive enjoyment of this property were established by the Imperial Par-
liament, all parties, however loud their present pretensions, or however vehement
their first complaints, would peacefully acquiesce in an arrangement which would
then be inevitable. This might be the case if the establishment of some domi-
nant church were inevitable. But it cannot be necessary to point out that in
the immediate vicinity of the United States, and with their example before the
people of Canada, no injustice, real or fancied, occasioned and supported by a
British rule, would be regarded in this light. The result of any determination on
the part of the British "Government or Legislature to give one sect a predominance
and superiority would be, it might be feared, not to secure the favoured sect, but to
endanger the loss of the colony, and, in vindicating the exclusive pretensions of
the English church, to hazard one the fairest possessions of the British Crown.

I am bound, indeed, to slate, that there is a degree of feeling and an unanimity
of opinion on the question of ecclesiastical establishments over the northern part
of the continent of America, which it will be prudent not to overlook in the settle-
ment of this question. The superiority of what is called ' the voluntary principle'
is a question on which I may almost say that (here is no difference of opinion in
the United States; and it cannot be denied that on this, as on other points, the
tone of thought prevalent in the Union has exerted a very considerable influence
over the neighbouring Provinces. Similar circumstances, too. have had the
effect of accustoming the people of both countries to regard this quesiion in a
very different light from that in which it appears in the Old World ; and the
nature of the question is indeed entirely different in old and new countries. The
apparent right which time and custom give to the maintenance of an ancient and
respected institution cannot exist in a recently settled country, in which every
thing is new ; and the establishment of a dominant church there is a creation of
exclusive privileges in favour of one out of many religious denominations, and
that composing a small minority, at the expense, not merely of the majority, but
of many as large minorities The church, too, for which alone it is proposed that
the state should provide is the church which, being that of the wealthy, can best
provide for itself, and has the fewest poor (o supply with gratuitous religious
instruction. Another consideration which distinguishes the grounds on which
such a question must be decided in old and new countries is, that the state of
society in the latter is not susceptible of such an organization as is necessary for
the efficiency of any church establishment of which I know, more especially of
one so constituted as the established church of England ; ior the essence of the
establishment is its parochial clergy. The services of a parochial clergy are
almost inapplicable to a colony where a constantly varying population is widely
scattered over the country. Any clergy there must be rather missionary than
parochial.

A still stronger objection to the creation of a chuich establishment ill this
colony is, that not merely are the members of the church of* England a small
minority at present; but, inasmuch as the majority of emigrants are not members
of the church of England, the disproportion is likely to increase, instead of disap-
pearing, in the course of time. The mass of British emigi ants will be either from
the middle classes of Great Britain or the poorer classes of Ireland, the latter
almost exclusively Catholics, and the former in a great proportion either Scotch
Presbyterians or English Dissenters.

It is most important that this question should be settled, and so settled as to
give satisfaction to the majority of the people of the two Canadas, whom it equally
concerns; and I know of no mode of doing this but by repealing all provisions
in imperial acts that relate to the application of the Clergy Reserves, and the
funds arising from them, leaving the disposal of the funds to the local Legisla-
ture, and acquiescing in whatever decision it may adopt. The views which 1 have

73

expressed on this subject sufficiently mark my conviction, that, without the adop-
tion of such a course, the most mischievous practical cause of dissension will not
be removed.

I feel it my duty, also, in this, as in the Lower Province, to call especial atten-
tion to the policy which has been, and which ought to be, pursued towards the
large Catholic population of the Province. On this subject I have received com-
plaints of a general spirit of intolerance and disfavour towaid.s all persons of this
creed, to which I am obliged to give considerable credit, from the great respecta-
bility and undoubted loyally of those from whom the complaints were received.
Bishop JVIcDonell. the venerable Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, and Mr.
Manahan, M. P. for the county of Hastings, have made representations in letters,
which will be given in the appendix to this report. The Catholics constitute at
least a fifth of the whole population of Upper Canada. Their loyalty was most
generally and unequivocally exhibited at the late outbreak. Nevertheless, it is
said that they are wholly excluded from all share in the government of the coun-
try and the patronage at its disposal. " In Upper Canada," says Mr. Manahan,
there never was one Irish Roman Catholic an executive or legislative councillor,
nor has one been ever appointed to any public situation of emolument and profit
in the colony.'

The Irish Catholics complain very loudly and justly of the existence of Orang-
ism in this colony. They are justly indignant that, in a Province which their
loyalty and bravery have materially contributed to save, their feelings are out-
raged by the sy mbols and processions of this association. It is somewhat difficult
to understand the nature and objects of the rather anomalous Orangeism of Up-
per Canada. Its members profess to desire to uphold the Protestant religion,
but to be free from those intolerant feelings towards their Catholic countrymen
which are the distinctive marks of the Irish Orangemen. They assert that the
main object, to which the support of the English church is subsidiary, is to main-
tain the conuexion with Great Britain. They have sworn, it is said, many igno-
rant Catholics iuto their body; and at their public dinners, after drinking the
" pious, glorious, and immortal memory," with all the usual formality of abuse
of the Catholics, they ^oast the health of the Cotholic Bishop, McDonell.- —
It would seem that their great purpose has been to introduce the machinery,
rather than the tenets, of Orangeism ; and the leaders probably hope to make
use of this kind of permanent conspiracy and illegal organization to gain political
power for themselves. In fact, the Catholics scarcely appear to view this insti-
tution with more jealousy than the Reformers of the Province. It is an Irish
Tory institution, having not so much a religious as a political beating. The Irish
Catholics who have been initiated have entered it chiefly from its supposed na-
tional character, and probably with as little regard to the political as to the reli-
gious objects with which it is connected. Still the organization of this body ena-
bles its leaders to exert a powerful influence over the populace ; and it is stated
that at the last general election the Tories succeeded in carrying more than one seat
by means of the violence of the organized mob thus placed at their disposal. It
is not, indeed, at the last election only that the success of the Government candi-
date has been attributed to the existence of this association. At former elections,
especially those for the county of Leeds, it is asserted, that the return of the
Canadian Deputy Grand Master, and of the then Attorney-General, his colleague,
was procured by means of a violent and riotous mob of Orangemen, who prevented
the voters in the opposition interes: from coming up to the poll In consequence
of this and other similar outrages, the Assembly presented an address to Sir
Francis Head, begging " that his Excellency would be pleased to inform the
house whether the Government of the Province had taken, or determined to take,
any steps to prevent or discourage public processions of Orange societies, or to
discourage the formation and continuance of such societies. To this address the
Governor made the following reply :— " The Government of this Province has
neither taken, nor has it determined to take, any steps to prevent or discourage
the formation or continuance of such societies." It is to be presumed that this
answer proceeded from a disbelief of the truth .of those charges of outrago and

79

riot which were made the foundation of the address. But it can excite no sur-
prise that the existence of such an institution, offending one class by its contemp-
tuous hostility to their religion, and another by its violent opposition to their
politics, and which had been sanctioned by the Governor, as was conceived, on
account of its political tendencies, should excite among both classes a deep feel-
ing of indignation, and add seriously to the distrust with which the Government
was regarded.

In addition to the irritation engendered by the position of parties, by the specific
causes of dispute to which I have adverted, and by those features in the govern-
ment of the colony which dc prive the people of all power to effect a settlement of
the questions by which the country is most deeply agitated, or to redress abuses
in the institutions or in the administration of the Province, there are permanent
causes of discontent, resulting from the existence of deep-seated impediments in
the way of its industrial progress. The Province is without any of those means
by which the resources of a country are developed and the civilization of a people
is advanced or upheld. The general administration of justice, it is true, appears
to be much better in Upper than in Lower Canada. Courts of justice, at least,
are brought into every man's neighbourhood by a system of circuits, and there
is still some integrity injuries. But there are general complaints of the union of
political and judicial functions in the Chief Justice ; not because any suspicion
attaches to that Judge's discharge of his duties, but on account of the party
grounds upon which his subordinates are supposed to be appointed, and the party
bias attributed to them. Complaints, too, similar to those which I have adverted
to in the Lower Province, are made against the system by which the sheriffs are
appointed. It is stated that they are selected exclusively from the friends or
dependents of the ruling party ; that very insufficient securities are taken from
them ; and that the money arising from executions and sales, which are repre-
sented as unhappily very numerous in this Provinee, generally remains in their
hands for at least a year. For reasons also which I have specified in my account
of the Lower Province, the composition of the magistracy appears to be a serious
cause of mischief and dissatisfaction.

But, independently of these sources of complaint, are the impediments which
I have mentioned. A very considerable portion of the Province has neither roads,
post-offices, mills, schools, nor churches. The people may raise enough for their
own subsistence, and may even have a rude and comfortless plenty, but they
can seldom acquire wealth; nor can even wealthy land-owners prevent their
children from growing up ignorant and boorish, and from occupying a far lower
mental, moral, and social position than they themselves fill. Their means of
communication with each other, or the chief towns of the Province, are limited
and uncertain. With the exception of the labouring class, most of the emigrants
who have arrived within the last ten years are poorer now than at the time of
their arrival in the Province. There is no adequate system of local assessment
to improve the means of communicrtion ; and the funds occasionally voted for
this purpose are, under the present system, disposed of by a House of Assembly
which represents principally the interests of the more settled districts, and which,
it is alleged, has been chiefly intent in making their disposal a means of strength-
ening the influence of its Members in the constituencies which they represent.
These funds have consequently almost always been applied in that part of the
country where they were least needed ; and they have been too frequently ex-
pended so as to produce scarcely any perceptible advantages. Of the lands which
were originally appropriated for the support of schools throughout the country,
by far the most valuable portion has been diverted to the endowment of the
University, from which those only derive any benefit who reside in Toronto, or
those who, having a large assured income, are enabled to maintain their children
in that town at an expense which has been estimated at £50 per annum for each
child. Even in the most thickly peopled districts, there are but few schools,
and those of a very inferior character ; while the more remote settlements are
almost entirely without any.

80

Under such circumstances there is little stimulus to industry or enterprise, and
their effect is aggravated by the striking contrast presented by such of the United
States as border upon this Province, and where all 13 activity and progress. I
shall hereafter, rn connection with the disposal of the public lands, advert to
circumstances affecting not Upper Canada merely, but the whole of our North
American Colonies in an almost equal degree, which will illustrate in detail the
causes and results of the more prominent of these evils. I have referred to the
topic in this place, in order to notice the inevitable tendency of these inconve-
niences to aggravate whatever discontent may be produced by purely political
causes, and to draw attention to the fact, that those who are most satisfied with
the present political state of the Province, and least disposed to attribute eco-
nomical injuries or social derangement to the form or the working of the govern-
ment, feel and admit that there must have been something wrong to have caused
so striking a difference in progress and wealth, between Upper Canada and the
neighbouring States of the Union. I may also observe, that those evils affect
chiefly that portion of the people which is composed of British Emigrants, and
who have had no part in the causes to which they are attributable. The native-
born Canadians, as they generally inhabit the more settled districts of the Pro-
vince, are the owners of nearly all the wastelands, and have almost exclusively
had the application of all public funds, might be expected to have escaped from
the evils alluded to, and even to have profited by the causes out of which they
sprung. The number of those who have thus prohted is, however, comparatively
small; the majority of this class, in common with the emigrant population, have
suffered from the general depression, and share in the discontent and restlessness
which this depression has produced.

The trade of the country is, however, a matter which appears to demand a
notice here, because, so long as any such marked and striking advantages in
this respect are enjoyed by Americans, as at present arise from causes which
Government has the power to remove, it is impossible but that many will look
forward with desire to political changes. There are laws which regulate, or
rather prohibit, the importation of particular articles, except from England,
especially of tea, which were framed originally to protect the privileges of mono-
polies here, but which have been continued in the Province after the English
monopoly has been removed. It is not that these laws have any appreciable
effect in raising the price of the commodities in question- — almost all used in the
Province is smuggled across the frontier— but their operation is at once injurious
to the fair dealer, who is undersold by persons who have obtained their articles
in the cheaper market of the United States, and to the Province, which can neither
regulate the traffic, nor make it a source of revenue It is probable, indeed, that
the present law has been allowed to continue through inadvertance ; but if so, it
is no very satisfactory evidence of the care or information of the Imperial Go-
vernment, that it knows or feels so little the oppressive influence of the laws to
which it subjects its dependencies.

Another, and more difficult topic connected with this subject is, the wish of this
Province that it should be allowed to make use of New York as a port of entry.
At present the rate of duty upon all goods coming from the United States, what-
ever mav be their nature, or the port in Europe from which they have been
shipped, is such as to compel all importers to receive the articles of their trade
through the St. Lawrence, the navigation of which river op^ns generally several
weeks later than the time at which goods may be obtained in all the parts of
Upper Canada bordering upon Lake Ontario, by way of Oswego. The dealer,
therefore, must submit to an injurious delay in his business, or must obtain his
goods in the autumn, and have his capital lying dead for six months. Either of
these courses must lessen the amount of traffic, by diminishing the quantity, or
increasing the price, of all commodities; and the mischief is seriously enhanced
by the monopoly which the present system places in the hands of what are called
the ' forwarders' on the St. Lawrence and the Ridenu Canal If goods might be
>hipped from England to be landed at New York in bond, and to be admitted
into Upper Canada free of duty upon the production of a certificate from the

81

officer of customs at the English port from which they are shipped, this inconve-
nience would be removed, and the people of the Province would in reality benefit
by their connexion with England in the superior cheapness of their articles, with-
out paying for it as highly as they do at the present in the limitation of their
commerce.

I have already stated, in ray account of Lower Canada, the difficulties and dis-
putes which are occasioned by the financial relations of the two Provinces The
state of affairs, however, which causes these disputes is of far greater practical
mischief to Upper Canada. That Province, some years ago, conceived the very
noble project of removing or obviating all the natural impediments to the naviga-
tion of the St. Lawrence ; and the design was to make these works on a scale so
commensurate with the capabilities of that broad and deep river, as to enable
sea-going vessels to navigate its whole course to the head of Lake Huron. The
design was, perhaps, too vast, at least for the first effort of a state at that time
comparatively so small and poor; but the boldness with which the people under-
took it, and the immense sacrifices which they made in order to achieve it, are
gratifying indications of a spirit which bids fair hereafter to render Upper Canada
as thriving a country as any state of the American Union. The House of Assem-
bly, with this object in view, took a large portion of the shares of the Welland
Canal, which had been previously commencfd by a few enterprising individuals.
It then commenced the great ship canal, called the Cornwall Canal, with a view
of enabling ships of considerable draught to avoid the Long Sault Rapids ; and
this work was, at an immense outlay, brought very far towards a completion. It
it is said that there was great mismanagement, and perhaps no little jobbing, in
the applicatton of the funds, and the execution of the work But the greatest
error committed was the undertaking the works in Upper, without insuring their
continuation in Lower Canada ; for the whole of the works in the Upper Province,
when completed, would be comparatively, if not utterly useless, without the ex-
ecution of similar works on that part of the St Lawrence which lies between the
province line and Montreal. But this co-operation the Lower Canadian Assembly
refused or neglected to give; and the works of the Cornwall Canal are now al-
most suspended, from the apparent inutility of completing them.
^ The necessary expense of these great undertakings was very large; and the
prodigality superadded thereto has increased it to such an extent, that this Pro-
vince is burdened with a debt of more than £1,000,000; the whole revenue,
which is about £60 000, being hardly adequate to pay the interest. The Pro-
vince has already been fortunately obliged to throw the whole support of the (ew
and imperfect local works which are carried on in different parts of the Province,
on local assessments ; but it is obvious that it will soon be obliged to have recourse
to direct taxation, to meet its ordinary civil expenditure : for the custom duties
cannot be increased without the consent of Lower Canada ; and that consent it is
useless to expect from any House of Assembly chosen undtr the suspended consti-
tution. The canals, of which the tolls would, if the whole series of necessary
works were completed, in all probability render the past outlay a source of pi-ofif,
instead of loss, remain in a state of almost hopeless suspension ; the Cornwall
Canal being unfinished, and the works already completed daily falling into decay,
and the Welland Canal, which has been a source of great commercial benefit,
being now in danger of becoming useless, from want of money to make the neces-
sary repairs. Afte: all its great hopes, and all the great sacrifices which it has
made to realize them, Upper Canada now finds itself loaded with an enormous
debt, which it is denied the means of raising its indirect taxation to meet, and
mocked by the aspect of those unfinished works, which some small combined
efforts might render a source of vast wealth and prosperity, but which now are a
source of useless expense and bitter disappointment.

It may well be believed that such a state r>( things is not borne without repining

by some of the most enterprising and loyal people of the Province. It is well

known that the desire of getting over these difficulties has led many persons in

this Province to urge the singular claim to have a convenient portion of Lower

L

82,

• ■

Canada taken from that Province and annexed to Upper Canada ; and that it
induces many to desire an union of the Provinces as the only efficient means of
settling- all these disputes on a just and permanent footing. But it cannot he
matter of surprise, that in despair of any sufficient remedies being provided by
the Imperial Government, many of the most enterprising colonists of Upper Ca-
nada look to that bordering country, in which no great industrial enterprise ever
feels neglect or experiences a check, and that men the most attached to the
' existing form of government would find some compensation in a change, whereby
experience might bid them hope that every existing obstacle would be speedily
removed, and each man's fortune share in the progressive prosperity of a flourish*
ing state.

A dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, produced by causes such as
I have described, necessarily extends to many who desire no change in the politi-
cal institutions of the Province. Those who most admire the form of the existing
system wish to see it administe*ed in a very different mode. Men of all parties
feel that the actual circumstances of the colony are such as to demand the adop-
tion of widely different measures from any that have yet been pursued in reference
to them. They ask for greater firmness of purpose in their rulers, and a more
defined and consistent policy on the part of the Government — something, in
short, that will make all parties feel that an order of things has been established
to which it is necessary that they should conform themselves, and which is not to
be subject to any unlooked for arid sudden interruption consequent upon some
unforseen move in the game of politics in England Hitherto the course of policy
adopted by the British Government towards this colony has had reference to the
sta'eof parties in England, instead of the wants and circumstarces of the Pro-
vince : neither party could calculate upon a successful result to their struggles for
any particular object, because, though they might be able to estimate accurately
enough their strength in the colony, they could not tell how soon some hidden
spring might be put in motion in the Colonial-office in England which would
defeat their best laid plans, and render utterly unavailing whole years of patient
effort.

THE EASTERN PROVINCES, AND NEWFOUNDLAND.

Though I have stated my opinion that my inquiries would have been very incom-
plete had they been confined to the two Canadas, the information which I am
enabled to communicate wjh respect to the other North American colonies is neces-
sarily v< ry limited. As, however, in these Provinces, with the exception of New-
foundland, there are no sujh discontents as threaten the disturbance of the public
tranquillity, I did not thii.k it necessary to institute any minute inquiries into fhede
tails of the various departments of government. Ii is only necessary that I should
state my impression of the general working of the government in these colonies,
in order that if institutions similar to those of the disturbed provinces should here
appear to be tending to similar results, a common remedy may be devised for the
impending, as well as for existing disorders. On this head I have obtained much
useful information from the communications which I Had with the Lieutenant
Governors of these colonies, as well as with individuals connected with them, but,
above all, from the frequent and lengthened discussions which passed between
me and the gentlemen who composed the deputations sent to ine last autumn from
each of the three Eastern Provinces, for the purpose of discussing the principles
as well as details of a plan of general government for the whole of the British
Noath American colonies It was most unfortunate that the events of temporary,
but pressing importance, which compelled my return to England, interrupted
these discussions ; but the delegates with whom I had the good fortune to carry
them on were gentlemen of so much ability, so high in station, and so patriotic
in their views, that their information could not fail to give me a very fair view of the
working of the colonial constitution under somewhat different circumstances in
•acb. I insert in the appendix a communication which I received from one of

83

?he gentlemen, Mr. Young, a leading and veiy active member of the House of
Assembly of Nova Scotia, respecting that province.

It is not necessary, however, that I should enter into any lengthened account of
the natnre or working of the form of government established in these provinces,
because in my account of Lower Canada 1 have described the general character-;
estics of the system common to all, and adduced the example of these provinces;
in illustration of the defects of their common system. In all these provinces we
find representative government coupled with an irresponsible executive ; we find •
the same constant collision between the branches of the Government; the same
abuse of the powers of the representative bodies, owing to the anomaly of their '.
position, aided by the want of good municipal institutions, and the same constant
interference of the Imperial Administration, in matters which should be left wholly
to the Provincial Governments. And if in these provinces there is less formidable
discontent, and less obstruction to the regular course of government, it is because
in them there has been recently a considerable departure from the ordinary ;
course of the colonial system, and a neater approach to sound constitutional -
practice.

This is remarkably the case in New Brunswick, a province which was till a
short time ago one of the most constantly harrassed, by collisions between the
executive and legislative powers; the collision has now been in part terminated
by the concession of all the revenues of the province to the assembly. The policy .
of this concession, with reference to the extent and mode in which it was made,
will be discussed in the separate report on the disposal and management of public
lands; but the policy of the Government in this matter has at any rate put an end
to disputes about the revenue, which were on the point of producing a constant
Parliamentary conflict between the Crown and the Assembly, in many respects
like that which has subsisted in Lower Canada ; but a more important advance I
has been made towards the practice of the British constitution in a recent change
which has been made in the Executive and Legislative Councils of the colony,
whereby, as I found from the representatives of the present official body in the
delegation from New Brunswick, the administrative power of the province had
been taken out of the hands of the old official party, and placed in those of
members of the former liberal Opposition. The constitutional practice had been,
in fact, fully carried into effect in this province; the government had been taken
•out of the hands of those who could not obtain the assent of the majority of the
Assembly, and placed in the hands of those who possessed its confidence; the re-
sult is, that the government of New Brunswick, till lately, one of the most diffi-
cult in the North American Colonies, is now the most harmonious and easy.

In Nova Scotia some, but nor a complete approximation has been made to the
same judicious course. The Government is in a minority in the House of Assem-
bly, and the Assembly and the Legislative Council do not perfectly harmonize.
But the questions which divides parties at present happen really to be of no.
great magnitude, and all are united and zealous in the great point of maintaining
the connexion with Great Britain. It will be seen from Mr. Young's paper, thar
the questions at issue, though doubtless of very considerable importance, involve
no serious discussion between the Government and the people. The majority of
the Opposition is stated by the official party to be very uncertain, and is admitted
by themselves to be very narrow. Both parties look with confidence to the com-
ing general election; and all feel the greatest reliance on the good sense and
good intentions of the present Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Colin Campbell.

I must, however, direct particular attention to the following temperate re-
marks of Mr. Young on the constitution of the Executive and Legislative Coun-
cils : —

" The majority of the House of Assembly is dissatisfied with the composition
of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and the preponderance in both of in-
terests which they conceive to be unfavorable to Reform ; this is the true ground,
as I take it, of the discontent that is felt. The respectability and private virtue*
of the gentlemen who sit at the two Council Boards are admitted by all ; it is of
their political and personal predilections that the people complain ; they desire

84

reforming and liberal principles to be more fully represented and advocated
there, as they are in the Assembly.

" The majority of the house, while they appreciate and have acknowledged
the anxiety of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor to gratify their just ex-
pectations, have also expressed their dissatisfaction that the Church of England
should have been suffered to retain a majority in both councils, notwithstanding
the remonstrances of the house and the precise and explicit directions of the Co-
lonial Secretary. Religious dissensions are happily unknown amongst us, and
the true way to prevent their growth and increase, is to avoid conferring an inor-
dinate power on any one sect, however worthy it may be of respect or favour.'

The political history of Prince Edward's Island is contained in the system pur-
sued with regard to its settlement, and the appropriation of its lands, which is
fully detailed in the subsequent view of that department of government in the
North American colonies; and its past and present disorders are but the sad
result of that fatal error which stifled its prosperity in the very cradle of its ex-
istence, by giving up the whole island to a handful of distant proprietors. Against
this system, this small and powerless community has in vain been struggling for
some years; a few active and influential proprietors in Londou have been able
to drown the remonstrances and defeat the efforts of a distant and petty Pro-
vince; for the ordinary evils of distance are, in ihe instance of Prince Edward's
Island, aggravated by the scantiness of its population, and the confined extent of
its territory. This island, most advantageously situated for the supply of the
surrounding colonies, and of all the fisheries, possesses a soil peculiarly adapted
to the production of grain, and, from its insular position, is blessed with a climate
far more genial than a great part of the continent which lies to the southward.
Had its natural advantages been turned to proper account, it might at this time
have been the granary of the British colonies, and. instead of barely supporting
a poor and unenterprising population of 40,fXK), its mere agricultural resources
would, according to Major Head, have maintained in abundance a population of
at least ten times that number. Of nearly 1.400,000 acres contained in this
island, only 10,000 are said to be unfit for the plough. Only 100,000 are now
under cultivation. No one can mistake the cause of this lamentable waste of the
means of national wealth. It is the possession of almost the whole soil of the
island by absentee proprietors, who would neither promote nor permit its culti-
vation, combined with the defective government which first caused and has since
perpetuated the evil. The simple legislative remedy for .all this mischief having
been suggested by three successive Secretaries of State, has been embodied in
an act of the local Legislature, which was reserved for the Royal assent ; and the
influence of the proprietors in London was such, that that assent was for a long
time withheld. The question was referred to me during my stay in Canada ; and
I believe I may have the satisfaction of attributing to the recommendation which
I gave, in accordance with the earnest representations of the Lieutenant-Governor,
Sir Charles Fitzroy, the adoption at last of a measure intended to remove the
abuse that has so long retarded the prosperity of this colony.

The present condition of these colonies presents none of those alarming fea-
tures which mark the state of the two Canadas The loyalty and attachment to
the mother country which animate iheir inhabitants are warm and general But
their varied and ample resources are turned to little account Their scanty popu-
lation exhibits, in most portions of them, an aspect of poverty, backwardness,
and stagnation ; and wherever a better state of things is visible, the improvement
js generally to be ascribed to the influx of American settlers or capitalists. Ma-
jor Head describes his journey through a great part of Nova Scotia as exhibiting
the melancholy spectacle of •• half the tenements abandoned, and lands every
where falling into decay ;" " and the lands," he tells us, ''that were purchased
30 or 40 years ago, at 5s. an acre, are now offered for sale at 3s." " The people
of Prince Edward's Island are," he says, " permitting Americans to take out of
their hands all their valuable fisheries, from sheer want of capital to employ their
own population in them." " The country on the noble river St. John's," he states,
" possesses all that is requisite, except that animation of business which constitutes

85

the value of a new settlement." But the most striking indication of the backward
state of these Provinces is afforded by the amount of the population. These Pro-
vinces, among the longest-settled on the North American continent, contain nearly
30,000,000 of acres, and a population, estimated at the highest, at no more than
365,000 souls, giving only one inhabitant for every 80 acres. In New Bruns-
wick, out of 16,500,000 acres, it is estimated that at least 15,000,000 are fit for
cultivation ; and the population being estimated at no more than 140,000, there is
not one inhabitant for 100 acres of cultivatable land.

It is a singular and melancholy feature in the condition of these Provinces, that
the resources rendered of so little avail to the population of Great Britain are
turned to better account by the enterprising inhabitants of the United States.
While the emigration from the Province is large and constant, the adventurous
farmers of New England cross the frontier and occupy the best farming lands.
Their fishermen enter our bays and rivers, and in some cases monopolize the
occupations of our own unemployed countrymen, and a great portion of the trade
of the St. John's is in their hands. Not only do the citizens of a foreign nation
do this, but they do it with British capital. Major Head states, " that an Ameri-
can merchant acknowledged to him that the capital with which his countrymen
carried on their enterprises in the neighbourhood of St. John's was chiefly sup-
plied by Great Britain ; and." he adds, as a fact within his own knowledge, " that
wealthy capitalists at Halifax, desirous of an investment for their money, pre-
ferred lending it in the United States to applying it to speculation in New Bruns-
wick, or to lending it to their own countrymen in that Province."

I regret to say that Major Head also gives the same account respecting the
difference between the aspect of things in these Provinces and the bordering
state of Maine On the other side of the line, good roads, good schools, and
thriving farms afford a mortifying contrast to the condition in which a British
subject finds the neighbouring possessions of the British Crown.

With lespect to the colony of Newfoundland I have been able to obtain no
information whatever, except from sources open to the public at large. The
Assembly of that island signified their intention of making an appeal to me re-
specting some differences with the Governor, which had their immediate origin
in a dispute with a judge. Owing, probably, to the uncertain and tardy means
of communication between Quebec and that island, I received no further commu-
nication on this or any other subject until after my arrival in England, when I
received an address expressive of regret at my departure.

I know nothing, therefore, of the state of things in Newfoundland, except that
there is, and long has been, the ordinary colonial collision between the represen-
tative body on one side and the executive on the other; that the representatives
have no influence on the composition or the proceedings of the Executive Govern-
ment; and that the dispute is now carried on, as in Canada, by impeachments
of various public officers on the one hand, and prorogations on the other. I am
inclined to think that the cause of these disorders is to be found in the same con-
stitutional defects as those which 1 have signalized in the rest of the North Ameri-
can colonies. If it be true that there exists in this island a state of society which
renders it unadvisable that the whole of the local government should be entirely
left to the inhabitants, 1 believe that it would be much better to incorporate this
colony with a larger community, than to attempt to continue the present experi-
ment of governing it by a constant collision of constitutional powers.

DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS-EMIGRATION.

I have mentioned the peculiar importance which, in newly-settled
societies, is attached to works for creating and improving the means of com-
munication. But in such communities, and especially when only a small
proportion of the land has been occupied by settlers, there is a still more mo-
mentous subject of public concern. I allude to an operation of Govern-

S6

ment, which has a paramount influence pver the happiness of individuals,
and the progress of society towards wealth and greatness— I am speaking
of the disposal, by the Government, of the lands Hf the new country. In
old countries, no such matter ever occupies public attention ; in new
Coloniest planted on a fertile and extensive territory, this is the object of
the deepest moment to all, and the first business of the Government. —
Upon the manner in which this business is conducted, it may almost be
said that every thing else depends. If lands are not bestowed on the in-
habitants and new-comers with a generous hand, the society endure the
evils of an old and over-peopled state, with the superadded inconv*»ninces
that belong to a wild country. They are pinched for room, even in the
wilderness — are prevented from choosing the most fertile soils and favour-
able situations — and are debarred from cultivating that large extent of
soil, in proportion to the hands at work, which can alone compensate, in
quantity of produce, for the rude nature of husbandry in the wilderness. —
If, on the other hand, the land is bestowed with cureless profusion, great
evils of another kind are produced. Large tracts become the property of
individuals, who leave their lands unsettled and untouched. Deserts are'
thus interposed between the industrious settlers; the natural difficulties of
communication are greatly enhanced ; the inhabitants are not merely
scattered over a wide space of country, but are separated from each other
by impassable wastes; the cultivator is cut off or far removed from a
market in which to dispose of his surplus produce, and procure other com-
modities ; and the greatest obstacles exist to co-operation in labour — to
exchange — to the division of employments — to combination for municipal
or other public purposes — to the growth of towns — to public worship — to
regular education — to the spread of news — to the acquisition of common
knowledge — and even to the civilizing influences of mere intercourse for
amusement. Monotonous and stagnant, indeed, must ever be the state
of a people who are permanently condemned to such separation from each
other. If, moreover, the land of a new country is so carelessly surveyed,
that the boundaries of property are incorrectly or inadequately defined,
the Government lays up a store of mischievous litigation for the people.
Whatever delay takes place in perfecting the titles of individuals to lands
alienated by the Government, occasions equal uncertainty and insecurity
of property. If the acquisition of land, in whatever quantities, is made
difficult or troublesome, or is subjected to any needless uncertainty or
delay, applicants are irritated — settlement is hindered — and immigration
to the Colony is discouraged, as emigration from it is promoted. If very
different methods of proceeding have effect in the same Colony, or in dif\
ferent parts of the same group of Colonies, the operation of some can
scarcely fail to interfere with or counteract the operation of others: so
that the object of the Government must, somewhere or at some time, be
defeated. And frequent changes of system are sure to be very injurious,
not only by probably displeasing those who either obtain land just before,
or desire to obtain some just after each change, but also by giving a cha-
racter of irregularity, uncertainty, and even mystery, to the most impor-
tant proceedings of Government. In this way settlement and emigration
are discouraged : inasmuch as the poeple, both of the Colony and of the
Jtypther Country, are deprived of all confidence in the permanency of any
system, and of any familiar acquaintance with any of the temporary
methods. It would be easy to cite many other examples of the influence
of Government in this matter. I will mention but one more here. If

87

the disposal of public lands is administered partially, with favour to parti*
cular persons or classes, a sure result is the anger of all who do not benefit
by. such favoi^sm — (the far greater number, of course) — and consequently
the general unpopularity of the Government.

Under suppositions the reverse of these, the best, instead of the worst,
effects would be produced ; a constant and regular supply of new land,
in due proportion to the wants of a population increasing by births and
immigration; all the advantages to which facilities of transport and com-
munication are essential; certainty of limits, and security of title to pro-
perty in land; the greatest facilities in acquiring the due quantity; fhe
greatest encouragements to immigration and settlement; the most rapid
progress of the people in material comfort and social improvement; and
a general sense of obligation to the Government. What a contrast do the
two. pictures present! Neither of them is over-coloured; and a mere
glance at both suffices to show, that in the North American Colonies of
England, as in the United States, the function of authority most full of
good or evil consequences has been the disposal of public land.

Impressed before my departure from England, with a sense of the great
importance of this subject, and indulging a hope, founded on the very
remarkable success of a new method of disposing of public lands in Your
Majesty's Australian Colonies, that I might be able to recommend bene-
ficial reforms in the North American Provinces, I took precautions for
instituting a thoroughly efficient inquiry into the whole subject generally,
and in detail; and I was the more disposed to do this, because while an
inquiry by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in 1836, fur-
nished abundant information on the subject, as respects most parts of
Your Majesty's Colonial Empire, the North American Provinces had been
specifically excluded from that inquiry ; and I could not obtain in Eng-
land any authentic, or at least sufficient information as to the disposal of
public lands in any of them. Within a very short lime after my arrival
in Canada, the expediency of a searching inquiry into the subject, became
more than ever apparent to me. A common belief in the great extent of
my powers, revived innumerable complaints of abuse, and applications
for justice or favour, which had slumbered during previous years. During
my residence in the Canadas, scarcely a day passed without my receiving
some petition or representation relating to the Crown Lands Department ;
and matters belonging to this branch of Government necessarily occupied
a far larger proportion than any other of my correspondence with the
Secretary of State. The information which I now possess was chiefly
obtained by means of a Commission of Inquiry, which, having regard to
the probable advantages of an uniform system for the whole of Brittsh
North America, and to the deep and universal interest taken in this sub-
ject by the Colonists, I issued in Your Majesty's name, and made appli-
cable to ail the Provinces. Minutes of the evidence given before the
Commissioners are appended to the present Report, together with a sepa-
rate Report, containing the outline of a plan for the future administration
of this all-influential Department of Government. If that plan, or any
other founded on similar principles, should be adopted by Your Majesty,
and the Imperial Legislature, I do firmly believe that an impulse will be
given to the prosperity of Your Majesty's North American Possessions,
surpassing what their most sanguine well-wisher, if unacquainted with
the facts, would be capable of imagining; and more calculated than any
other reform whatever, to attach the people of British North America to

88

Your Majesty's Throne — and to cement and perpetuate an intimate con-
nexion between the Colonies and the Mother Country. I shall have to
return to this point hereafter. I have mentioned it here, for the purpose of
inviting Your Majesty's attention, and awakening that of Your Ministers
and of Parliament to a theme which, however little it has hitherto interested
the Imperial Government, is the object of constant and earnest discussion
in the Colonies.

In the United States, ever since the year 1796, the disposal of public
land not already appropriated lo particular states, has been strictly regu-
lated by a law of Congress; not by different laws for the various parts
of the country, but by one law for the whole of the public lands, and a
law which we may judge to have been conducive to the prosperity of the
people, both from its obvious good effects, and from its almost unques-
tioned continuance for so many years. In the British North American
Colonies, with one partial exception, there never has been, until quite
recently, any law upon the subject. The whole of the public lands have
been deemed the property of the Crown, and the whole of the adminis-
tration for disposing of them to individuals, with a view to settlement,
has been conducted by officers of the Crown, under instructions from
the Treasury or the Colonial Department in England. The provincial
assemblies, except quite recently in New Brunswick and Upper Canada,
have never had any voice in this matter ; nor is the popular controul in
those two cases much more than nominal. The Imperial Parliament
has never interfered but once, when, leaving all other things untouched,
it enacted the unhappy system of "Clergy Reserves." With these very
slight exceptions, the Lords of the Treasury and Colonial Secretary of
State for the time being, have been the only legislators ; and the pro-
vincial agents of the Colonial Secretary, responsible to him alone, have
been the sole executors.

The system of the United States appears to combine all the chief re-
quisites of the greatest efficiency. It is uniform throughout the vast fed-
eration ; it is unchangeable save by Congress, and has never been ma-
terially altered ; it renders the acquisition of new land easy, and yet, by
means of a price, restricts appropriation to the actual wants of the set-
tler ; it is so simple as to be readily understood ; it provides for accurate
surveys and against needless delays ; it gives an instant and secure title ;
and it admits of no favouritism, but distributes the public property
amongst all classes and persons upon precisely equal terms. That sys-
tem has promoted an amount of immigration and settlement of which
the history of the world affords no other example ; and it has produced
to the United States a revenue which has averaged about half a million
sterling per annum, and has amounted in one twelvemonth to about four
millions sterling, or more than the whole expenditure of the Federal Go-
vernment.

In the North American Colonies there never has been any system.
Many different methods have been practised, and this not only in the dif-
ferent colonies, but in every colony at different times, and within the
same colony at the same time. The greatest diversity an J most frequent
alteration would almost seem to have been the objects in view. In only
one respect has there been uniformity. Every where the greatest pro-
fusion has taken place, so that in all the colonies, and nearly in every
part of each colony, more, and very much more land has been alienated
by the government than the grantees had at the time, or now have ihe

89

means of rectaimrng from a state Of wilderness ; and yet in *lt rtre coltf-
riies tmtH lately, and in some d( them still, it is either very difficult or
next to impossible for a person of no influence to obtain any of the pob-
>ic land. More or less in all the colonies, and in some of them to an ex-
tent which would not be credited if the fact were not established by
unquestionable testimony, the surveys have been inaccurate, and the
boundaries, or even the situation of estates, are proportionally uncertain.
Everywhere, needless delays have harassed and exasperated applicants;
and everywhere, more or less, I am sorry but compelled to add, gross fa-
voritism has prevailed in the disposal of public lands. I have mentioned
but a part of the evils, grievances, and abuses of which Your Majesty's
subjects in the colonies justly complain, as having arisen from 'malad-
ministration in this department. Those evils remain wholly unremedied,
most of those grievances are unredressed, and not a few of those abuses
are unreformed at this hour. Their present existence has been fo feted
on my conviction by indisputable evidence. If they had passed away, I
should scarcely have alluded to them. If I had any hope of seeing them
removed, otherwise than by means of giving them authentic publicity-, I
should have hesitated to speak of them, as I have done. As it is, I
should ill perform the duty which Your Majesty was pleased to confide
t6 me, if I failed to describe them in the plainest terms.

The results of long misgovernment in this department, are such as
might -hkve been anticipated by any person understanding the subject.
The administration 6f the publie lands, instead of always yielding a rev-
enue, cost for a long while more than it produced. But this is, I venture
to think, a trifling consideration when compared with others. There is
one in particular which has occurred to every observant traveller in these
regions, which is a constant theme of boast in the states bordering upon
our colonies, and a subject of loud complaint within the colonies. I allude
to the striking contrast which is presented between the American and
the British sides of the frontier line, in respect to every sign of produc-
tive industry, increasing wealth, and progressive civilization.

By describing one side, and reversing the picture, the other would be
also described. On the American side all is activity and bustle. The
forest has been widely cleared ; every year numerous settlements are
formed, and thousands of farms are created out of the waste ; the country
is intersected by common roads; canals and railroads are finished, or in
the course of formation ; the ways of communication and transport are
crowded with people, and enlivened by numerous carriages and large
steamboats. The observer is surprised at the number of harbours on the
lakes, and the number of vessels they contain ; while bridges, artificial
landing-places, and commodious wharves are formed in all directions as
soon as required. Good houses, warehouses, mills, inns, villages, towns-,
and even great cities, are almost seen to spring up out of the desert.
Every village has its school-house and place of public worship. Every
town has many of both, with its township buildings, its book-stores, and
probably one or two banks and newspapers; and the cities, with their
fine churches, their great hotels, -their exchanges, court-houses and mu-
nicipal haHs, of stone or marble, so new and fresh as to mark the recent
existence of the forest where they now stand, wot rid be admired in any
part of the old world. On the British side of the line, with tire exception
of a few favored spots, where some approach to American prosperity h
M

90

apparent, all seems waste and desolate. There is but one rail-road in
all British America, and that, running between the St. Lawrence and
Lake Champlain, is only fifteen miles long. The ancient city of Mon-
treal, which is naturally the commercial capital of the Canadas, will not
bear the least comparison, in any respect, with Buffalo, which is a crea-
tion of yesterday. But it is not in the difference between the larger
towns on the two sides that we shall find the best evidence of our own
inferiority. That painful but undeniable truth is most manifest in- the
country districts through which the line of national separation passes for
1,000 miles. There, on the side of both the Canadas, and also of New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, a widely scattered population, poor, and
apparently unenterprising, though hardy and industrious, separated from
each other by tracts of intervening forest, without towns and markets, al-
most without -roads, living in mean houses, drawing little more than a
rude subsistence from ill-cultivated land, and seemingly incapable of
improving their condition, present the most instructive contrast to their
enterprising and thriving neighbours on the American side. I was as-
sured that in the eastern townships of Lower Canada, bordering upon
the line, it is a common practice for settlers when they wish to meet, to
enter the state of Vermont, and make use of the roads there for the pur-
pose of reaching their destination in the British Province. Major Head,.
the assistant commissioner of crown lands' inquiry, whom I sent to New
Brunswick, states, that when travelling near the frontier line of that pro-
vince and the state of Maine, now on one side and then on the other, he
could always tell on which side he was by the obvious superiority of the
American settlements in every respect. Where the two countries are
separated by the St. Lawrence and the lakes, the difference is less per-
ceptible ; but not less in fact, if I may believe the concurrent statements
of numerous eye-witnesses, who had no motive for deceiving me. For
further corroboration, I might refer indeed to numerous and uncontra-
dicted publications ; and there is one proof of this sort so remarkable,
that I am induced to notice it specially. A highly-popular work, which
is known to be from the pen of one of Your Majesty's chief function-
aries in Nova Scotia, abounds in assertions and illustrations of the back-
ward and stagnant condition of that province, and the great superiority
of neighboring American settlements. Although the author, with a na-
tural disinclination to question the excellence of Government, attributes
this mortifying circumstance entirely to the folly of the people, in neg-
lecting their farms, to occupy themselves with complaining of grievances
and abuses, he leaves no doubt of the fact.

This view is confirmed by another fact equally indisputable. Through-
out the frontier, from Amherstburgh to the ocean, the market value of
land is much greater on- the American than on the British side. In not
a, few parts of the frontier this difference amounts to as much as 1,000
per cent., and in some cases even more. The average difference, as be-
tween Upper Canada and the states of New York and Michigan, is noto-
riously several hundred per cent. Mr. Hastings Kerr of Quebec, whose
knowledge of the value of land in Lower Canada is generally supposed
to be more extensive and accurate than that of any other person, states
that the price of wild land in Vermont and New Hampshire, close to the
line, is #5 per acre, and in the adjoining British townships only #1. On
this side the line a very large extent of land is wholly unsaleable, even
at such low prices ; while on the other side property is continually chang-

ing hands. The price of 2s. or 3s. per acre would purchase immense
tracts in Lower Canada and New Brunswick. In the adjoining Slates it
would be difficult to obtain a single lot for less than as many dollars. In
and near Stanstead, a border township of Lower Canada, and one of
the most improved, 48,000 acres of fine land, of which Governor Sir R.
S. Milne obtained a grant to himself in 1010, was recently sold at the
price of 2s. per acre. Mr. Stayner, the deputy post master general,
one of the largest proprietors of wild'land in Lower Canada, says:
1 20 years ago, or thereabout, I purchased wild land at what was then
considered a low price, in the natural hope that it would be gradually in-
creasing in value, and that, whenever I might choose to sell, it would be
at such a profit as would afford me a fair return for the use of the money
employed. So far, however, from realizing this expectation, I now find
after the lapse of so many years, when the accumulated interest upon the
money invested has increased the cost of the land 150 per cent. — I say I
find that I could not, if compelled to sell this land, obtain more for it
than it originally cost me.' I learned from others besides Mr. Kerr, but
quote his words, that 'the system pursued in granting Crown Lands in
Lower Canada has been such as to render it impossible to obtain money
on mortgage of land, because there is no certainty as to the value : when
a sale is forced, there may be a perfect glut in the market and no pur-
chasers.' • Similar statements might be cited in abundance. It might be '
supposed by persons unacquainted with the frontier country, that the soil
on the American side is of very superior natural fertility. I am positive-
ly assured that this is by no means the case ; but that, on the whole, su-
perior natural fertility belongs to the British territory. In Upper Cana-
da, the whole of the great peninsula between Lakes Erie and Huron,
comprising nearly half the available land of the province, consists of gen-
tly undulating alluvial soil, and; with a smaller proportion of inferior
land than probably any other tract of similar extent in that part of North
America, is generally considered the best grain country on that continent.
The soil of the border townships of Lower Canada is allowed on all
hands, to be superior to that of the border townships of New York, Ver-
mont, and New Hampshire; while the lands of New Brunswick, equal
in natural fertility to those of Maine, enjoy superior natural means of
communication. I do not believe that the universal difference in the
value of land can anywhere be fairly attributed to natural causes.

Still less can we attribute to such causes another circumstance, which
in some measure accounts for the different values of property, and which
has a close relation to the subject of the public lands — I mean the great
amount of re-emigration from the British colonies to the border states.
This is a notorious fact. No body denies it ; almost every colonist speaks
of it with regret. What the proportion may be of those emigrants from
the United Kingdom who, soon after their arrival, remove to the United
States, it would be very difficult to ascertain precisely. Mr. Bell Forsyth,
of Quebec, who has paid much attention to the subject, and with the best
opportunites of observing correctly in both the Canadas, estimates that
proportion at sixty per cent, of the whole. Mr. Hawke, the chief agent
for emigrants in Upper Canada, calculates that out of two-thirds of the
immigrants by the St. Lawrence who reach that province, one-fourth re-
emigrate chiefly to settle in the States. It would appear, however, that
the amount of emigration from Upper Canada, whether of new comers or
others, must be nearer Mr. Forsyth's estimate. The population was reck-

$2

Oft^d at $0Q,Q0O in Jaimurj 1880. The increase by, births since then
should havx been at least three per cent, per annum, or 54,000. Mr.
llawke states the number of immigrants from Lower Canada, since 1829,
to have been 165,000; allowing thnt these also would have increased at
the rate of three per cent, per annum, the whole increase by immigration
and births should have been nearly 200,000. But Mr. Hawke's estimate of
immigrants takes no account of the very considerable number who enter
the province by way of New York and the Erie Canal. Reckoning these
at only 50,000, which is probably under the truth, and making no allow-
ance for their increase by births, the entire population of Upper Canada,
should now have been 500,000, whereas it is, according to the most reli-
able estimates, not over 400,000. It would therefore appear, making all
allowance for errors in this calculation, that the number of people who
have emigrated from Upper Canada to the United States, since 1829,
must be equal to more than half of the number who have entered the
Province during the eight years. Mr. Baillie, the present Commissioner
of Crown lands in New Brunswick, says, '■' a great many emigrants ar-
rive in the Province, but they generally proceed to the United States, as
there is not sufficient encouragement for ihem in this Province." Mr.
Morris, the present Commissioner of Crown lands, and surveyor-general
of Nova Scotia, speaks in almost similar terms of the emigrants who
reach that Province by way of Halifax.

I am far from asserting that the very inferior value of land in the Bri-
tish colonies, and there-emigration of immigrants, are altogether occa-
sioned by mismanagement in the disposal of public lands. Other defects
and errors of government must have had a share in producing these
lamentable results; but I only speak the opinion of all the more intelli-
gent, and, let me add, some of the most loyal of your Majesty's subjects
in North America, when I say that this has been the principal cause of
these great evils. This oj inion rests upon their personal acquaintance
with numerous facts. Some of these facts I will now state. They have
been selected from a much greater number, as being peculiarly calculated
to illustrate the faults of the system, its influence on the condition of the
people, and the necessity of a thorough reform. J may add, that many
of them form the subject of despatches which I have addressed to your
Majesty's Secretary of State.

I have observed before that nearly all of the different methods pursued
by the government have had one mischievous tendency in particular;
they have tended to place a vast extent of land out of the coutrol of
government, and yet to retain it in a state of wilderness. This evil has
been produced in all the colonies alike, to what extent, and with what
injurious consequences, will be made apparent by the following illustra-
tive statements :—

My official returns which accompany this report., it appears that, out
of about 17,00,0,000 of acres comprised within the surveyed districts, of
Upper Canada, less than 1,600,000 acres are yet unappropriated, arid
this amotiut includes 450,000 acres the reserve for roads, leaving less
than 1,200,0,00 acres open to grant; and of this remnant 500,000 acres
are required to satisfy claims for grants founded on pledges by the govern-
ment. In the opinion of Mr. H'adenhurst, the realiy acting surveyor-
general, the remaining 700,0,00 consist fox the most part of land inferior
in position or quality. It may almost be said, therefore, that the whole
of the public lands in Upper Canada have been alienated by the govern-

03

ment. In Lower Canada, out of 6,169,963 acres iu the 9u)veyed town-
ships, n^arlry. 4,000,000 acres have been granted or sold ; and thete af«*
unsatisfied, but indisputable claims for grants to the amount of about
500,000. In Nova Scotia nearly 6,000,000 of acres have been granted,
and in the opinion of the Surveyor-General only about one-eighth of the>
land which remains to the Crown, or f 00,000 acres is available for the
purposes of settlement. The whole of Prince Edward's Island, about
1,490,000 acres, was alienated in one day. In New Brunswick 4,400,000
acres have been granted or sold, leaving to the Crown about 11,000,000,
of which 5,500,000 acres are considered fit for immediate settlement.

Of the lands granted in Upper and Lower Canada, upwards of 3,000,-
000 acres consist of '■ Clergy Reserves," being for the most part lots of
200 acres each, scattered at regular intervals over the whole face of the
townsJups,, ayd remaining, with few exceptions, entirely wild to this day.
Tb.£ evils produced by the system of reserving land for the clergy have
become notorious, even in this country ; and a common opinion I believe
prevails here, not only that the system has been abandoned, but that
measures of remedy have been adopted. This opinion is incorrect in
both points^ In respect of every new township in both Provinces re-
serves are sji.ll made for the clergy, just as before ; and the act of the
Imperial Parliament which permits the sale of Clergy Reserves, applies
to only one-fourth of the quantity. The select committee of the House
of Commons on the civil government of Canada reported, in 1328, that
" these reserved lands, as they are at present distributed over the country,
retard more than any other circumstance the improvement of the colony,
lying as they do in detached portions of each township, and intervening
between the occupations of actual settlers, who have no means of cutting
roads through the woods and morasses, which thus separate them from
their neighbours." This description is perfectly applicable to the pre-
sent state of things. In no perceptible degree has the evil been remedied.

The system of Clergy Reserves was established by the act of 1791,
commonly ca-lled the Constitutional Act, which directed that, in respect
of_ al^. grants made by the Crown, a quantity equal to one-seventh of the
land so granted should be reserved for the clergy. A quantity equal to
one-seventh of all grants would be one-eighth of each township, or of all
the public land. Instead of this proportion, the practice has been, ever
since the act passed, and in the clearest violation of its provisions, to set
apart for the clergy in Upper Canada a seventh of all the land, which is!
a quantity equal to a sixth of the land granted. There have been ap-
propriated for this purpose 300,000 acres, which legally, it is manifest,
belong to the public. And of the amount for which Clergy Reserves
have been, sold in that Province, namely, £317,000 (of which about
£100,000 have been already received and invested in the English funds),
the sum of alnnit £45,000 should belong to the public.

In Lower Canada, the same violation of the law has taken place, with
thi,s. difference — that upon every sale of Crown and Clergy Reserves, a
fresh reserve for the clergy has been made, equal to a fifth of such re-
serves. The result has been the appropriation for the clergy of 673,567
acres, instead of 446,000, being an excess of 227,559 acres, or half as
much again as they ought to have received. The Lower Canada fund
already produced by sales amounts to £50,000, of which, therefore, a
a third, or about £ 16,000, belong to the public. If, without any reform
of this abuse, the whole of the unsold Clergy Reserves in both Provinces

94

slioUld fetch the average price at which such lands have hitherto sold,
the public would be wronged to the amount of about £280,000 ; and the
reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost immediate gain to
the public of £60,000. In referring, for further explanation of this sub-
ject, to a paper in the appendix which has been drawn up by Mr. Han-
son, a member of the commission of inquiry which I appointed for all
the colonies, I am desirous of stating my own conviction that the clergy
have had no part in this great misappropriation of the public property,
but that it has arisen entirely from heedless misconception, or some other
terror, of the civil government of both Provinces.

The great objection to reserves for the clergy is, that those for whom
the land is set apart never have attempted, and never could successfully
attempt, to cultivate or settle the property, and that, by that special ap-
propriation, so much land is withheld from settlers, and kept in a state
of waste, to the serious injury of all settlers in its neighbourhood. But
it would be a great mistake to suppose that this is the only practice by
which such injury has been, and still is, inflicted on actual settlers. In
the two Canadas, especially, the practice of rewarding, or attempting to
reward, public services by grants of public land, has produced, and is
still producing, a degree of injury to actual settlers which it is difficult to
conceive without having witnessed it. The very principle of such grants
is bad, inasmuch as, under any circumstances, they must lead to an
amount of appropriation beyond the wants of the community, and greatly
beyond the proprietor's means of cultivation and settlement. In both
the Canadas, not only has this principle been pursued with reckless pro-
fusion, but the local executive governments have managed, by violating
or evading the instructions which they received from the Secretary of
State, to add incalculably to the mischiefs that would have arisen at all
events.

In Upper Canada, 3,200,000 acres have been granted to *» U.E. Loyalists,"
being refugees from the United States, who settled in the Province before
1787, and their children; 730,000 acres to Militia men; 450,000 acres to
discharged Soldiers and Sailors; 255,000 acres to Magistrates and Bar-
risters; 136,000 acres to Executive Councillors, and their families; 50,000
acres to five Legislative Councillors, and their families; 36,900 acres to
Clergymen, as private property ; 264,000 acres to persons contracting to
make surveys, 92,526 acres to officers of the Army and Navy, 500,000
acres for the endowment of schools, 48,520 acres to Colonel Talbot, 12,000
acres to the heirs of General Brock, and 12,000 acres to Doctor Moun-
tain, a former Bishop of Quebec ; making altogether, with the Clergy
Reserves, nearly half of all the surveyed land in the Province. In
Lower Canada, exclusively of grants to refugee loyalists, as to the
amount of which the Crown Lands' Department could furnish me with
no information, 450,000 acres have been granted to Militiamen, to Ex-
ecutive Councillors 72,000 acres, to Governor Milne about 48,000 acres,
to Mr. Cushing and another, upwards of 100,000 acres (as a reward for
giving information in a case of high treason), to officers and soldiers
200,000 acres, and to "leaders of townships" 1,457,209 acres, making
altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, rather more than half of the sur-
veyed lands originally at the disposal of the Crown.

In Upper Canada, a very small proportion (perhaps less than a tenth)
of the land thus granted, has been even occupied by settlers, much less
reclaimed and cultivated. In Lower Canada, with the exception of a

05

few townships bordering on the American frontier, which have beetl
comparatively well settled, in despite of the proprietors, by American
squatters, it may be said that nineteen-twentieths of these grants are still
unsettled, and in a perfectly wild state.

No other result could have been expected in the case of those classes
of grantees whose station would preclude them from settling in the wil-
derness, and whose means would enable them to avoid exertion forgiving
immediate value to their grants ; and unfortunately, the land which waff
intended for persons of a poorer order, who might be expected to improve
it by their labour, has, for the most part, fallen into the hands of land-
jobbers of the class just mentioned, who have never thought of settling'
in person, and who retain the land in its present wild state, speculating
upon its acquiring a value at some distant day, when the demand for
land shall have increased through the increase of population.

In Upper Canada, says Mr. Bolton, himself a great speculator and
holder of wild land, " the plan of granting large tracts of land to gen-
tlemen who have neither the muscular strength to go into the wilderness,
nor, perhaps, the pecuniary means to improve their grants, has been the
means of a large part of the country remaining in a state of wilderness.
The system of granting land to the children of U. E. Loyalists has not?
been productive of the benefits expected from it. A very small propor- ^
tion of the land granted to them has been accupied or improved. A
great proportion of such grants were to unmarried females, who very
readily disposed of them for a small consideration, frequently from £2 to
£5 for a grant of 200 acres. The grants made to young men were also
frequently sold for a very small consideration ; they generally had parents
with whom they lived, and were therefore not disposed to move to their
grants of lands, but preferred remaining with their families. I do not
think one-tenth of the lands granted to U. E. Loyalists has been occupied
by the persons to whom they were granted, and in a great proportion of
cases not occupied at all." Mr. Radenhurst says, " the general price of
these grants was from a gallon of rum up to perhaps £6, so that while
millions of acres were granted in this way, the settlement of the Province
was not advanced, nor the advantage of the grantee secured in the man-
ner that we may suppose to have been contemplated by government."
He also mentions amongst extensive purchasers of these grants, Mr.
Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, who bought about
100,000 acres; Chief Justices Emslie and Powell, and Solicitor General
Grey, who purchased from 20,000 to 50,000 acres ; and states that seve-
ral members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, as well as of the
House of Assembly, were " very large purchasers."

In Lower Canada, the grants to " Leaders and Associates" were made
by an evasion of instructions which deserve a particular description.

By instructions to the Local Executive immediately after the passing
of the Constitutional Act, it was directed that " because great inconveni-
ences had theretofore arisen in many of the colonies in America from
the granting excessive quantities of land to particular persons who have
never cultivated or settled the same, and have thereby prevented others
more industrious, from improving such lands : in order, therefore, to
prevent the like inconveniences in future, no farm-lot should be granted
to any person being master or mistress of a family in any township to be
laid out which should contain more than 200 acres." The instructions
then invest the governor with a discretionary power to grant additional

06

quantities in certain cases, not exceeding 1,000 sere*. According Wr
these instructions £00 acres should have been the general amount. 1,200
the maximum, 4n special cases to be granted to any individual. Tlr«
greater part, however, of the land (1,457,200 acres) was granted, in fact,
-a to individuals at the rate o4" from 10,000 to 50,000 to each person. The
evasion of the regulations was managed as follows :— *A petition, signed
by from 10 to 40 or 50 persons, was presented to the Executive Council,
praying for a grant of 1,200 acres to each person, and promising to settle
the land so applied for. Such petitions were, I am informed, always
granted, the Council being perfectly aware that, under a previous agree-
ment between the applicants (of which the form was prepared by the
then Attorney General, and sold publicly by the law stationers of Que^
bee), five-sixths of the land was to be conveyed to one of them, termed
the leader, by whose means the grant was obtained. In most cases the
leader obtained the whole of the land which had been nominally applied
for by fifty persons. A report of a committee of the House of Assem-
bly, known to have been drawn up by the present Solicitor-Genera^
speaks of this practice in the following terms : " Your committee un-
willing to believe that the above mentioned evasions of Hrs Majesty's
gracious instructions had been practised with the knowledge, privity, or
consent of His Majesty's servants, bound by their oaths, their honour and
their duty to obey them, instituted a long and patient investigation in-
to the origin of these abuses. They have been painfully but irresistibly
led to the conclusion, that they were fully within the knowledge of indi-
viduals in this colony who possessed and abused His Majesty's confidence.
The instruments by which this evasion was to be carried into effect were
devised by His Majesty's Attorney General for the time being, printed
and publicly sold in the capital of this Province; and the principal in-
termediate agent was His Majesty's late assistant surveyor-general."

In order to reward militiamen in Lower Canada, who had served
on the frontier during war, the Duke of Richmond, acting, as it would
appear, under instructions from the Home Government, but of which no
copy is extant in the public offices at Quebec, promised grants of land
to many thousand persons inhabiting all parts of the Province. The
intentions of the Home Government appear to have been most praise-
worthy. How effectually they have been defeated by the misconduct of
the local executive will appear from a report on the subject in the ap-
pendix (A.), and the following copy of the instructions given to commis-
sioners whom I appointed i ri order to expedite the settlement of militia
claims. I would also refer to the evidence of Mr. Kerr, Mr. Morin, Mr.
Davidson, and Mr. Langevin : —

"TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF UNSETTLED MILITIA CLAIMS.
"Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 12th Sept'r. 1S38.

"Gentlemen — I am directed by His Excellency the Governor General, in
furnishing you with some instructions for your guidance in disposing of unsettled
militia claims, to state the views which he takes of this subject, and has repre-
sented to Her Majesty's Government.

'* His Excellency is of opinion that, if any reliance is to be placed on the con-
current testimony of all from whom he has derived information on the suhject,
the report of the Commiss;oner of Crown Lands and Emigra'ion, on which his
recent proclamation is founded, contains but a faint description of the injury
inflicted on this Province, and of the cruel injustice done to the militiamen,- by
the manner m which the intentions of the Home Government with respect to
these claimants have been defeated by the Local Executive.

97

" It appears Jo His Excellency that the intentions of the Prince Regent in
awarding land to those officers and men of the militia who had loyally and gal-
lantly served during the last American war, were, in part, to promote the settle-
ment of wild lands, and the consequent prosperity of the Province, but chiefly,
there can be no doubt, to bestow upon that body of loyal and gallant men some
extraordinary recompense for the privations and dangers which they had cheer-
fully incurred in defence of the country. His Excellency is satisfied that neither
result was obtained in any but so slight a degree as lo be scarcely worth notice.
But the Governor-General perceives on the other hand, that results occurred, as
to the great majority of cases, precisely opposite to those which the Home Govern-
ment had in view. The official delays and obstacles interposed between the
militia claimants and the grants to which they were entitled — the impossibility,
in many cases, of ever obtaining a grant, even afier the most vexatious impedi-
ments and delays — the mode of allotting the land in such a manner, that the
grant when obtained was often worth nothing at all, and seldom worth the trouble
and expense of obtaining it — the necessity of employing and paying agents
acquainted with the labyrinths of the Crown Lands and Surveyor General's
Departments — the expense, uncertainty, and harrassing trouble attendant upon
the pursuit of such a claim — all these circumstances, for which His Excellency
is compelled to believe that the public offices were alone to blame, had the effect,
he is convinced, in the majority of cases, of convertiug what the Prince Regent
had intended as a boon, into a positive injury to the militia-men. He is assured,
as might have been expected, that the militia-men disposed of their claims, often
for a mere trifle, to land speculators, who never intended to settle upon the
grants, and who have for the mosi part kept the land in a state of wilderness;
thereby defeating the only other intention with which the Home Government
could have determined on making these grants. From a careful inspection of
the evidence taken on this subject from official gentlemen, as well as others, His
Excellency is led to concur entirely in that part of the Commissioners' report,
which states, that ' there has been the maximum of injury to the Province, with
the minimum of benefit to the milititia-men.'

" This crying grievance His Excellency finds has been over and over again,
and in various forms, represented to the Government, but without any attempt,
as far as he can discover, to provide an adequate remedy for it. He is en-
couraged to hope that the measure on which he has determined may, as respects
the claims yet unsettled, be the means of carrying into effect, however tardily,
the objects of the Prince Regent, by conferring a considerable boon on these
meritorious but long disappointed claimants, and conducing to the settlement of
the lands which mav thus be alienated by the Crown.

"The Governor-General further directs me to make you acquainted with his
confident expectation that you will proceed, with the utmost despatch not incom-
patible with accuracy, to determine all unsettled claims ; that, in awarding orders
to persons whose claims could not have been admitted under the original proclama-
tion, but will now be held valid, you will take care not to admit any claims except
those of the six battalions and of others who actually served for the same period,
and precisely in the same manner as the six battalions. His Excellency cannot
doubt, moreover, that you will spare no pains in endeavouring to secure to the
class of militiamen the advantage which was intended for them alone, and which
they ought long since to have received. As one means of this most desirable
end. His Excellency is of opinion that you should explain to all claimants, that the
orders for a nominal amount of money which you may award will have the full
value of money at future sales of Crown lands, and ought therefore to be ex-
changeable for money, if not for the whole sum named in them, still for one of
nearly the i,ime amount. I am, k.c.

" C. BULLER, Chief Secretary."

The purposes of the home Government, judging by the general instructions
Vliich thev gave to the local Executive, would seem to have been dictated by a

98

sincere, and also an enlightened desire, to promote (he settlement and improve-
ment of the country As respects Upper Canada, instructions, dated July, 1827,
established as a general rule for the disposal of public lands in future, that free
grants should be discontinued, and that a price should be required for land alien-
ated by the Crown. The quantity of land disposed of by sale since those instruc-
tions were given, amounts to 100,317 acres; the quantity disposed of during the
same period by free grant, all in respect of antecedent claims, is about 2,000,000
acres, being above 19 times as much as has been disposed of according to the
new rule.

The instructions were obviously prepared with care for the purposes of estab-
lishing a new system, and placing the whole of the disposal of Crown lands in
the hands of a commissioner, then for the first time appointed. The commis-
sioner never assumed the control of any other portion of these lands than such
as were included in returns made to him by the Surveyor-General, amounting to
no more than about 300,000 acres All the rest of the land open for disposal
remained, as previously, under the control of the Surveyor-General, as an agent
of the Government for locating free grants. The salary of the commissioner
was £500 a year, besides fees ; the whole service during ten years was the super-
intendence of the sale of 100,000 acres of wild land. The same person was also
Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, with a salary of £500 a year, and agent
for the sale of Clergy Reserves, with £500 a year.

In Lower Canada, under instructions from the Treasury, dated jn November,
1826. which were confirmed and further enforced by Lord Goderich in 1831, who
manifestly intended 10 supersede the old system of free grants by an uniform sys-
tem of sale, 450,469 acres have been sold, and 641,039 acres have, in respect of
antecedent claims, been disposed of by free grant; and the object of the new
rule of selling was defeated by the large amount of free grants. Even at this
moment, in the two Provinces, where I was assured before I left England that
the system of selling had been uniformly established by Lord Goderich's regula-
tions of 1831, there are unsettled, but probably indisputable claims for free
grants, to the amount of from 1.000,000 to 1,300,000 acres The main alteration
which Lord Goderich's regulations would have made in the system intended to
have been established by the Treasury instructions of 1826. was to render the
price more restrictive of appropriation, by requiting payment in less time, and
the payment of interest in the meanwhile. This direction appears to have been
totally disregarded in both Provinces As respects Lower Canada, the head of
the Crown Lands Department gives the lollowing evidence on the subject: —

*' How did it happen that this instruction was not acted upon ? — In consequence
of a representation from Mr. Felton, the Commissioner of Crown Lands to Lord
Aylmer, the Governor of the Province, stating that the terms imposed were too
severe, and amounted, in fact, to exacting the whole purchase-money down. —
Lord Aylmer, upon this, authorised Mr. Felton to continue the' former practice,
and it is understood reported the circumstance to the Home Government. This
was in 1832, and the system of longer credit without interest continued to be
acted upon until (he receipt of Lord Glenelg's despatch of 1837, which required
payment in ready money at the time of sale "

1 have already pointed out the importance of accurate surveys of the public
land. Without these there c;.n be no security of property in land, no cenaintv
even as to the position or boundaries of estates marked out in maps or named in
title deeds. In l\ova Scotia, says the present Surveyor-General, " there are very
many instances of'litigation in consequence of inaccurately defined boundaries."
Mr. M'Kenzie, a draughtsman of the Surveyor-General's office at Halifax, who
is also employed to conduct surveys in the field, says, he " has found it impossible
to make correct surveys in consequence of inaccuracy as to former lots of land,
from which of necessity he measures, and also from surveys being inaccurately
made by persons not qualified. In many cases, also, the boundaries of land
granted have never b< en surveyed or laid out at all. The present state of sur-
veys is inadequate and injurious to the settlement of the land." In New Brunswick.
says the present Survejor-Ueneral, "no survey of the Province has ever bccii

99

\

inade, and the surveys of the old grants are extremely erroneous, and expose
errors and collisions which could not have been supposed to exist. It frequently
has occurred that different grants are made for the same lot of land- I think this
system pernicious, and it will some day be very injurious. The usual practice
cannot be relied on as giving a settler a grant of land that cannot be disturbed,
without great care and a greater expense than a poor settler can afford." In
Upper Canada, Mr. Radenhurst asserts that "the surveys throughout the Pro.
vince generally are very inaccurate. This inaccuracy was produced in the first
instance by the deficiency of competent persons, and the carelessness with which
the surveys were conducted. Latterly the practice introduced by Sir Peregrine
Maitland, in spite of the results being pointed out b\ the then Surveyor General,
of letting out the surveys to any person who was willing to contract for them for
a certain quantity of land, produced extreme carelessness and inaccuracy. The
surveyors just hurried through the township, and of course made surveys, which,
on the ground, are found to be very inaccurate. There are instances in which
scarcely a single lot is of the dimensions or in the position actually assigned to it
in the diagram The consequences of this have been confusion and uncertainty
in the possessions of almost every man, and no small amount of litigation." As
to Lower Canada, the evidence is still more complete and satisfactory. The
Commissioner of Crown Lands says, in answer to questions, " I can instance
two townships, Shefford and Orford (and how many more may prove inaccurate,
as questions of boundary arise, it is impossible to say), which are very inaccurate
in their subdivision. On actual recent survey it has been found that no one lot
agrees with the diagram on record The lines dividing the lots, instead of run-
ning perpendicularly according to the diagram, actually run diagonally, the effect
of which is necessarily to displace the whole of the lots, upwards of 300 in num-
ber, from their true position. The lines dividing the ranges are so irregular as
to give to some lots two and a half times the contents of others, though they are
all laid down in tne diagram as of equal extent; there are lakes also which
occupy nearly the whole of some lots that are entirely omitted : I have heard
complaints of a similar nature respecting the tovvnship of Grenville. I have no
reason for believing that the surveys of other townships are more accurate than
those of Shefford and Orford, other than that in some parts of the country the
same causes of error may not have existed, whether physical causes, such as that
of magnetic attraction, where there really was a survey, or, in cases where there
was no actual survey, the negligence of the surveyor. The inaccuracy of which
I have spoken is confined to that part of thu Province which is divided into town-
ships There are 109 townships of about 100 square miles each,, including all
the land which has been disposed of by the British Government, except the seigno-
ries which were erected by that Government shortly after the conquest. Similar
difficulties to those which might arise in settling a question of title between the
Crown and an alleged squatter, arising from the inaccuracy of the township
surveys, would estend to all grants and sales by the Crown, and also to all ques-
tions of title between persons claiming to have a grant, or to have purchased from
the Crown, and alleged squatters on the land as-erted to be theirs, and more or
less to all cases in which different persons should claim to have received or pur-
chased the same piece of land from the Crown. It is a general observation that
this state of the Crown surveys must prove a source of interminable litigation
hereafter ; it is impossible to say how many cases may arise of double grants of
the same land under different designations, arising from the defective state of
the svrveys. None of such cases have come before me in an official shape, but
I apprehend that questions of that nature are waiting in great numbers until
lands shall have become more valuable, when the Crown will be called in upon
every occasion to defend its own grant, and, considering the state of the surveys,
will be without the means of such defence, unless measures to prevent the evil
should be adopted before its occurrence. In common with every person who
has ever reflected on the subject, 1 consider this a subject of very high import-
ance, and demanding the immediate attention of Government." Mr. Daly, the
Secretary of the Province, says — "An accurate 6urvey of the whole of the un-

160

granted lands in the Province I believe to be extremely desirable and necessary
to quiet doubts that have arisen in the minds of many new settlers as to the cor-
rectness of their boundaries." Mr. Patrick Daly, commissioned Surveyor of the
Province, gives the following evidence: —

" You are just come to Quebec to make a representation as to the state of the
township of Durham ? — I am.

" What is the point which you wish to ascertain? — Whether I can have autho-
rity to establish a new line between the 6th and 7th ranges of the township of
Durham.

" What would be the consequence of such a change ? — Jn consequence of a part
of the old range line being found incorrect to the extent of 60 perches, whereby
The 7th would lose about one fifth of its dimension, and the same amount would
be improperly added to the sixth ; the change I wish to make would set this right.

" How did you discover that the line was incorrect ? — In consequence of having
been 'employed by Captain Ploy art, cf Durham, to run the side lines of lot No;
I5„ in the 6th range, in order to determine the extent of his property, he being
the proprietor of that lot, I discovered that the line was incorrect, as I have de-
scribed already ; and I cannot proceed to rectify the error without authority from
the Governor, or some person appointed by the Governor, as we have not any
laws in the Province to enable me to -make a new range-line, as the old range-line
is not to be found, with the exception of a small part, which is in the wrong place
as I have described.

"Would a new line have the effect of taking away land, in actual possession,
from any person, and giving it to another? — Yes, it would.

" Do you suppose that the other range-lines in this township are correct or
incorrect? — Some are correct, but they are generally incorrect; my attention,
however, has not been particularly called to them.

" Are not the proprietors of the other lots which are incorrect anxious to have
the limits of their property settled? — Y"es, very anxious ; more particularly the
inhabitants of the third range, about one quarter of whose property is taken by
the inhabitants of the second range, through the means of an erroneous old range-
line, as has been proved by various subsequent surveys duly sworn to. 1 am re-
quested by all the inhabitants of the third range to take steps to obtain a new
range-line

" Have they ever applied before for this rectification of the survey? — Yes;
they applied to the Surveyor-General's department, by a statement made by me,
and now in the Surveyor-General's oifice ; but the answer was, that there was no
law in the Province to authorize the changing of a range-line, however incorrect,
without the consent of all the parties concerned.

"Then all parlies did not concur in this case? — No, they did not.

" Why not * — Because many of those who improperly gained by the error wished
to retain what lightly belonged to their neighbour.

"As the former application was fruitless, upon what ground do you now pro-
ceed ? — Upon the confidence, that as Lord Durham has greater powers than other
Governors, he may be pleased to consider this great loss of property tothe people;
and give orders to correct the evil.

u Are you acquainted with other townships ? — Yes.

" Have you found the surveys of them generally correct or incorrect? — I have
found the surveys of the township of Windsor as incorrect, or even more so than
that of the township 6i Durham, which can be proved by the most reliable testi-
mony. Generally, with the exception of the township of Wick ham, I have found
them quite incorrect I speak only from my personal experience, and not from
what I have heard."

Mr. Sewell, recently ehief-justice of the province, says : —
"' I have known of many defects in the surveys, which have appeared in many
cases before me, and am apprehensive that they are very numerous. I can only
state, from my own opinion, two remedies by which these defects may be in some
degree remedied : the one is by running anew the outline of the several townships ;
**he other, an act to give quiet possession, such as has been heretofore passed in

101

other provinces. I am afraid that running the outlines of the townships would
not be of any great benefit beyond exposing the errors." Mr. Kerr says : — " Ic
is generally understood that the surveys in many of the various townships are
very inaccurate ; and many of the surveys have been found to be so. J had in
my hand the other day a patent for fcur lots in the township of Inverness, three
of which did not exist, granted to a Captain Skinner. Three of the lots were de-
cided not to be in existence; and I received compensation for them in another
township. A great error was discovered in the original survey of the township of
Leeds. The inaccuracy of the surveys is quite a matter of certainty. I could
cite a number of townships ; Milton, Upton, Orford, Shefford, &.c, where the in-
accuracy has been ascertained. Inconvenience from the inaccuracy of the sur-
veys has been felt; but is only now beginning to be so seriously. As the settle-
ment of the country advances, and land acquires a greater value, great inconve-
nience must arise in the shape of endless questions of title: and of this many
people are so well aware; that they refuse to sell with a guarantee of title "

I may add, genenerailv, that I found the surveying department in Lower
Canada so thoroughly inefficient in its constitution, as to be incapable of any
valuable improvement ; and that I therefore abstained from interfering with it,
trusting that the whole future management of the public lands would be placed on
a new footing, calculated to remedy this, as well as all the other evils of the pre-
sent system.

Another of those evils requires some notice here. In the United States the title
to land purchased of the government is obtained immediately and securely, on
payment of the purchase money. In all the British colonies there is more or less
of useless formality, and consequent delay, in procuring a complete title to land
which has been paid for. Dr. Baldwin, speaking of Upper Canada, says ; — "I do
not know that there was any more constant subject of complaint on the part of
individuals against the government, than the delays of office, especially in con-
nection with land granting. It frequently happened to myself, and I believe to
others also, that during the time when free grants of land, of small amount, were
made to actual settlers, persons who had spent their money in wailing for the
completion of the grant, have applied to me for employment while the patent was
being perfected, and I have furnished it for a short time. The most striking in-
stance that occurred in my knowledge, in which an individual was injured by the
delay to which he was exposed in this respect, was that of a man of the name of
Burner, who, in Sir Peregrine Maitland's time, having fallen in debt to some per-
sons whom he had employed, was pressed by them for the money. At this time
a patent was in progress through the offices for him. He applied to his creditors
to give him time till his patent was completed, which would enable him to raise
money to pay them. The creditors were willing, and waited for some time, but
at last became impatient, and they arrested him, and he was compelled to go to
prison The patent had passed through the offices, but he was compelled to re-
main in prison a fortnight, while the patent was sent over to the Governor for his
signature, at his residence near the Falls of Niagara." A recent act of the Legis-
lature of Upper Canada has greatly mitigated this evil, which however remains in
full force in Lower Canada. Mr. Kerr says : — " As soon as the purchaser has
paid the last instalment, he is referred to the Crown Lands Officer, to whom the
payment is made, for patent to the Surveyor General for the necessary specifica-
tion. Then the specification, with reference, is sent to the Commissioner of Crown
Lands. These documents are next sent to the Secretary of the Governor, or
Civil Secretary, who directs the Provincial Secretary to engross the patent. The
fees are then levied, and, upon the payment of the fees, the Provincial Secretary
engrosses. On engrossment beh>g made, the Governor sings the patent, and the
great seal of the province is attached to it. The signature is procured by the
Provincial Secretary. The patent is then sent to the Commissioner of Crown
Lands to be audited. At present one of the commissioners audits : this used to
be done by the auditor, but the office of auditor has been abolished. When the
audit is made, the title is said to be perfected. The effect of having to refer to
so many persons has been the total loss of many references, and the papers con-

102

nected with them, in one or other of the offices. There have been cases in which
I was referred three times for the same patent, all the papers having been lost
twice successively, hi some cases the papers are found again, but at too late u
period to be available. The shortest time within which I have known a title to
be perfected is about six weeks, and the longest about eight years. More than
ordinary diligence was use*! in the case of six weeks. I obtained an order from
the Governor for a special reference for my patent to take priority of all other*
then in the office. The average period required for completing a title, after the
purchase has been completed by the payment of the whole of the pnrchase-mo-
ney, is full fifteen months. I am satisfied that the present system is a serious
impediment to the settlement of the country; and that no extensive measure for
that purpose can work well, unless the mode of obtaining title after purchase be
rendered much more simple. Immediate dispatch with title is what is required
to encourage purchasers, and prevent uncertainty and discontent. I have been
directed by purchasers to apply for the return of their purchase-money from the
Crown, because of the delay which has occurred. The present system is so pro-
fitable to agents, that, speaking as an agent. 1 should be sorry to see it abolished.
One of the inconveniences to the public is the necessity of employing agenis ac-
quainted with the labyrinths through which each reference has to pass."

The results of this general mismanagement are thus illustrated by the chief
agent for emigrants in Upper Canada: —

*•* The principal evils to which settlers in a new township are subject, result from
the scantiness of population. A township contains 80,000 acres of land ; one-
seventh is reserved for the clergy and one-seventh foi the Crown ; consequently
five-sevenths remain for the disposal of government, a large proportion of which
is taken up by grants to U. E. Loyalists, militiamen, officers and others; the far
greater part of these grants remain in an unimproved state. These blocks of
wild land place the actual settler in an almost hopeless condition: he can hardly
expect, during his lifetime, to see his neighbourhood contain a population suffi-
ciently dense to support mills, schools, post-offices, places of worship, markets,
or shops ; and without these civilization retrogrades. Roads under such circum-
stances can neither be opened by the settlers, nor kept in proper repair, even if
made by the government. The inconvenience arising from want of roads is very
great, and is best illustrated by an instance which came under my own observa-
tion in 1834. I met a'settler from the township of Warwick, on the Caradoc
Plains, returning from the grist-mill at Westminster with the flour and bran of
thirteen bushels of wheat. He had a yoke of oxen and a horse attached to his
waggon, and had been absent nine days, and did not expect to reach home till the
following evening. Light as his load was. he assured me that he had to unload
wholly or in part several times, and after driving his waggon through the swamps,
to pick out a road through the woods where the swamps or gullies were forriable,
and to carry the bags on his back and replace them in the waggon. Supposing
the services of the man and his team to be worth two dollars per day, the ex-
pense of transport would be twenty dollars. As the freight of wheat from To-
ronto to Liverpool (England) is rather less than 2s. 6d. per bushel, it follows that
a person living in this city could get the same wheat ground on the banks of the
Mersey, and the flour and bran returned to him, at a much less expense than he
could transport it from the rear of Warwick to Westminster and back — a distance
less than ninety miles. Since 1834 a grist-mill has been built in Adelaide, the ad-
joining township, which is a great advantage to the Warwick settlers ; but the
people in many parts of the Province still sutler great inconvenience from the
same cause."

Mr. Rankin, deputy land surveyor, says, " The system of making large grants
to individuals who bad no intention of settling them, has tended to retard the
prosperity of the colony by separating the actual settlers, and rendering it so
much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to make the necessary roads.
It has also made the markets more distant and more precarious. To such an ex-
tent have these difficulties been experienced as to occasion the abandonment of
settlements which had been formed. I mav mention, as an instance of this, the

103

township Rama, where, after atrial of three years, the settlers were compelled to
abandon their improvements. In the township of St. Vincent, almost all the
most valuable settlers have left their farms from the same cause. There have
been numerous instances in which, though the settlement has not been altogether
abandoned, the most valuable settlers, after unavailing- struggles of several years
with the difficulties which I have described, have left their farms." This witness,
who was for tert years employed by government as deputy surveyoi in the West-
ern District, which I have before described as the finest grain country in North'
America, states that " nine-tenths of the land granted by the Crown in that Dis-
trict are still in a state of wilderness."'

For illustrations of the same kind as respects Lower Canada, I would refer to
the testimony of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Mr. Kerr, the deputy post
master general, Mr. Russell, Major Head, Mr. Keough, the late Chief Justice,
and Mr Lemesurier.

Mr. Kerr says, " The main obstacle to the speedy settlement and cultivation of
all the more fertile parts of the Province is private land remaining wild; inas-
much as the land of the Crown is open to purchase, which is not generally the
case with that of private individuals, excepting at too exorbitant a price. So in-
jurious is the existence of this quantity of wild land, in the midst or in the neigh-
bourhood of a settlement, that numerous cases have occurred in which a settler,
after several years residence upon his property, and having expended in labour
from £20 to £50 in clearing part of it and building his house, has been driven to
abandon the farm, and to sell for it one-third, or even one-fourth of the sum that he
had expended upon it I have myself bought farms which have been abandoned
in this way, for the merest trifle One, I recollect now, consisted of 100 acres
in the township of Kingsey, a beautiful part of the District of Three Rivers, with
rather more than 20 acres cleared, and a good house and outhouses erected upon
it, for which 1 paid under £30. I could give very many instances of a similar
kind, Where 1 have either purchased myself, or have had a personal knowledge of
the circumstances."

One of the most remarkable instances of evils resulting from profuse grants of
land is to be found in Prince Edward's Island. Nearly the whole of the island
(about 1,400,000 acres) was alienated in one day, in very large grants, chiefly to
absentees, and upon conditions which have been wholly disregarded. The ex-
treme improvidence which dictated these grants is obvious; the neglect of the
government as to enforcing the conditions of the grant, in spite of the constant
efforts of the people and the Legislature to force upon its attention the evils under
which they laboured, is not less so. The great bulk of the island is still possessed
by absentees, who hold it as a sort of reversionary interest, which requires no
present attention, hut may become valuable some day or other through the grow-
ing wants of the inhabitants. But in the meantime, the inhabitants are subjected
to the greatest inconvenience, nay, to the most serious injury, from the state of
property in land. The absent proprietors neither improve the land, nor will let
others improve it. They retain the land and keep it in a state of wilderness. 1
have, in another place, adverted to the remedy proposed, and the causes which
have long retarded its adoption. The feelings of the colonists upon the subject
are fully expressed in the evidence of Mr. Lelacheur, Mr Solicitor General
Hodgson, and the Governor, Sir Charles Fitzroy. I may add, that their testimo-
ny was confirmed by that of the delegates from the island who visited me at
•Quebec.

In the above enumeration of facts, I do not profess to have exhausted the long
catalogue of evils and abuses which were brought to my notice. But I have sta-
ted enough I trust, to establish the position with which I set out — that the dispo-
sal of public lands in a new country has more influence on the prosperity of the
people than any other branch of government ; and further, to make it evident
that the still existing evils which have been occasioned by mismanagment in this
department, arc so great and general as to require a comprehensive and effec-
tual remedy, applied to all the colonies, before any mereiy political reform can
be expected to work well.

104

1 now proceed to another subject, which, though intimately connected with the
colonization and improvement of the Provinces, must yet be considered separate-
ly ; for it is one in which not the colonial population only, but the people of the
United Kingdom have a deep and immediate interest. I allude to the manner in
which the emigration of the poorer classes from Great Britain and Ireland to the
Worth American Colonies has hitherto been conducted.

About nine years ago, measures were for the first time taken to ascertain the
number of immigrants arriving at Quebec by sea. The number during these
nine years has been 263,089; and there have been as many in one year (1832) as
51,746. In the year before, the number was 50 254; in 1833. 21.752; in 1834,
30,935; in 1835,' 12,527; in 1836,27,728; in 1837, 22,500; and in 1838, only
4,992. The great diminution in 1838 was occasioned solely, I believe, by the
vague fears entertained in this country of dangers presented by the distracted
state of the colonies. I am truly surprised, however, that emigration of the
poorer classes to the Canadas did not almost entirely cease some years ago : and
that this would have been the case, if the facts which I am. about to state had been
generally known in the United Kingdom, there can.l think, be no rational doubt.

Dr. JYlorin, a gentleman of high professional and personal character, Inspecting
Physician of the Port of Quebec, and Commissioner of the Marine and Emigrant
Hospital, says — "I am almost at a loss for words to describe the state in which
the emigrants frequently arrived ; with a few exceptions, the state of the ships was
.quite abominable: so much so, that the Harbour-master's boat-men had no diffi-
culty, at the distance of a gun-shot, either when the wind was favourable or in a
/lead calm, in distinguishing, by the odour alone, a crowded emigrant ship. I
have known as many as from thirty to forty deaths to have taken place, in the
xourse of a voyage, from typhus fever, on board of a ship containing from 500 to
16OO passengers; and within six weeks after the arrival of some vessels, and the
(landing of the passengers at Quebec, the hospital has received upwards of 100
ipatienls, at different times, from among them. On one occasion, I have known
nearly 400 patients at one time in the Emigrant Hospital of Quebec, for whom
tthere was no sufficient accommodation; and, in order to provide them with some
shelter, Dr. Painchaud, the then attending Physician, with the aid of other Phy-
sicians, incurred a personal debt to the Quebec Bank, to a considerable amount —
which, however, was afterwards paid by the Provincial Legislature."
■** The mortality was considerable among the emigrants at that time, and was at-
tended with most disastrous consequences : children being left without protection,
and wholly dependent on the casual charity of the inhabitants of the city. As to
.those who wete not sick on arriving, I have to say, that they were generally for-
cibly landed by the Masters of vessels, without a shilling in their pockets to pro-
cure them a night's lodging — and vr-ry few of them with the means of subsistence
for more than a very short period. They commonly established themselves along
the wharves, and at the different landing-places, crowding into any place of shelter
they could obtain, where they subsisted principally upon the chanty of the inha-
bitants. For six week* at a time, from the commencement of the emigrant-ship
seasons, I have known the shores of the River along Quebec, for about a mile and
a half, crowded with these unfortunate people — the places of those who might have
moved off being constantly supplied by fresh arrivals : and there being daily drafts
of from ten to thirty taken to the hospital, with infectious disease. The conse-
quence was, its spread among the inhabitants o( the City — especially in the dis-
tricts in which these unfortunate creatures had established themselves. Those
who were not absolutely without money, got into low taverns and boarding-houses
and cellars, where they congregated in immense numbers, and where their state
was not any better than it had been on board ship This state of things existed,
within my knowledge, from 1826to 1832. and probably for some years previously."

Dr. Morin's testimony is confirmed by that of Dr. Skey. Deputy Inspector-
General of Hospitals, and President of theQuebec Emigrants' Society. He says—
" Upon the arrival of emigrants in the River, a great number of sick have landed.
A regular importation of contagious diseases into this country has annually taken
place; that disease originated on board ship, and was occasioned, I should say.

105

by bad management, in consequence of the ships being ill-found, Ill-provisioned,
over-crowded, and ill-ventilated. I should say, that the mortality during the voy-
age lias been dreadful ; to such an extent that, in 1834, the inhabitants of Quebec,
inking alarm at the number of shipwrecks— at the mortality of the passengers —
and the fatal diseases which accumulated at the Quaranline Establishment, at
Grosse Isle, and the Emigrant Hospital of this City, involving the inhabitants of
Quebec in the calamity, called upon the Emigrants' Society to take the subject into
consideration, and make representations to the Government thereon "

The circumstances described, took place under the operation of the Act 9th
Geo IV., commonly called th • Passengers' Act, which was passed in 1825— ■-re-
pealed in 1827 — and re-enacted in 1828. Ii, 1835, an amended Passengers' Act
was passed — the main features of which, so far as they differed from the former
Act, are stated to have been suggested by the Quebec Emigrants' Society. Mr.
Jessopp, Collector of Customs at the port of Quebec, speaking of emigration Under
the last Act, says — "It very often happens, that poorer emigrants have not a suf-
ficiency of provisions for the voyage; that they should have a sufficiency of pro-
visions, might be enforced under the Act, which authorises the inspection of pro-
visions by the out-port agent for emigrants. Many instances have come to my
knowledge in which from insufficiency of provisions, emigrants have been thrown
upon the humanity of the Captain, or the charity of their fellow-passengers. It
will appear, also, from the fact that many vessels have more emigrant passengers
than the number allowed by law, that sufficient attention is not paid at the out-
port to enforce the provisions of the Act, as to the proportions between the num-
bers and the tonnage. Such instances have not occurred this season (1838) —
emigration having almost ceased, in consequence, I presume, of the political state
of the Province; but last year there were several instances in which prosecution
took place. Vessels are chartered for emigration by persons whose sole object is
to make money, and who make a trade of evading the provisions of the Act. —
This applies particularly to vessels coming from Ireland. We have found, in
very many instances, that in vessels chartered in this way, the number was greater
than allowed by law ; and the Captains have declared, that the extra numbers
smuggled themselves, or were smuggled on board, and were only discovered after
the vessel had been several days at sea. This might be prevented by a stricter
examination of the vessel. The Imperial Act requires that the names, ages, sex, and
occupation of each passenger, should be entered in a list, certified by the Customs'
Officer at the out-port, and delivered by the Captain, with the ship's papers to the
Officers of the Customs here. Lists, purporting to be correct, are always delivered
to the Tide-surveyor, whose duty it is to muster the passengers, and compare them
with the list ; and this list, in many instances, is wholly incorrect as to names and
ages." * * * * * * * The object of the falsification of the ages is to
defraud the revenue, by evading the tax upon emigrants ******
" The falsification of names produces no inconvenience ; and I have only referred
to it for the purpose of showing the careless manner in which the system is worked
by the agents in the United Kingdom." But Dr. Poole, Inspecting Physician of
the Quarantine Station, at Grosse Isle, further explains the fraud, saying —
41 These falsifications are, first, for the purpose of evading the emigrant tax, « hich
is levied in proportion to age, and the common fraud is to understate the age ;
and, secondly, for the purpose of carrying more passengers than the law allows,
by counting grown persons as children: of which last the law allows a larger
proportion to tonnage than of grown persons. This fraud is very common, of
frequent occurrence, and it arises manifestly from want of inspection at home."

From this and other evidence, it .will appear that the amended Passengers' Act
alone, as it has been hitherto administered, would have afforded no efficient remedy
of the dreadful evils described by Dr. Morin and Dr. Skey. Those evils have,
however, been greatly mitigated by two measures of the Provincial Government :
first, the application of a tax upon passengers from the United Kingdom, to pro-
viding shelter, medical attendance, and the means of further transport to destitute
emigrants ; secondlv, the establishment of the quarantine station at Grosse Isle,

o "

1&6

a desert Island, some miles below Quebec, where toll vessels arriving with cases bY
contagious disease are detained ; the diseased persons are temovedto an hospital,
and emigrants not affected with disease are landed, and subjected to some disci-
pline for the purpose of cleanliness, the ship also being: cleaned while they remain
on shore. By these arrangements, the accumulation of wretched paupers at Que-
bec, and the spread of contagious disease, are prevented. An arrangement, made
only in 1837, whereby the quarantine Physician, at Grosse Isle, decides whether
or not an emigrant ship shall be detained there, or proceed m iis vov age, has, to
use the words of Dr. Poole, "operated as a premium to care and attention on the
partof the Captain, and has had a salutary effect on the comfort of tin emigrants."

I cordially rejoice in these improvements, bin would observe, that the chief
means by which the good has been accomplished, indicates the gieatness of the
evil that remains. The necessity of a quarantine establishment for preventing
the importation of contagious disease from Britain to her Colonies, as if the emi-
grants had departed from one of those eastern countries which are the home of
the plague, shows, beyond a doubt, either that our very system of emigration is
most defective, or that it is most carelessly administered.

It is, I know, contended in this country that, though great defects existed for-
merly, present arrangements are vevy different, and no longer objectionable. —
For example, in the report of the Agent General tor Emigra ion from the United
Kingdom, ordered by the House of Commons to fori printed 14lh May, 1838. it n
stated, with reference to that emigration to the Canadas before the year 1832,
which has been described by Dr. Motrin and Dr Skey, eye witnesses of the mise-
ries and calamities that took place, that " these gieat multitudes had gone out by
their own means, and disposed of themselves through their own efforts, without
any serious or lasting inconvenience " * * * * •• ^ practice," it is added,
*• which appeared to thrive so well spontaneously "

The same report states, with reference to the present opera t ion of the Passen-
gers' Act, and the offieeis employe. I by the Colonial Department to superintend
its execution, that "their duty is to give ease and security to the resort ;o the
Colonies, and to promote the observance of the salutary provisions of" the Passen-
gers' Act. In all that relates to emigration they constitute , as it were, in every
port, the appointed poor man's friend. They take notice whether the ship offered
for his conveyance is safe and fit tor its purpose; they see to the sufficiency of the
provisions on board ; they prohibit over-crowding'; and make vve\y effort to avert
or to frustrate those numerous and heartless frauds which are but too constantly
attempted, at the moment of departure, upon t he-humbler classes of emigrants "
'*' Every effort," adds the reporter, speaking of emigrants to North Ameiica, "is
made for the ease and safety of their tr.insr."

At Quebec, at least, where are landed the great majority of emigrants to the
North American Colonies, an opinion prevails which is greatly at variance with
the above representation. Nobody in the Colony denies that the Passenger*'
Act, and the appointment of agents to supei intend its execution, is a considerable
improvement upon the utterly lawless and unobserved practices of former limes;
nor, I should imagine, would any one in this country object to such an approach,
however distant, to the systematic and responsible management of emigration,
which has been repeatedly uri ed upon the Government of late years ; but that
there is still great room for further improvement, as lespects emigration to the
Colonies in Noith Ameiica, is, I think, established by Mr. Jessopp, and the fol-
lowing evidence of Dr. Poole :

Dr. Poole holds an important office, of which I am enabled to state that he
has performed the duties with great skill and exemplary diligence. He did not
volunteer the information he has .supplied. He was summoned to give evidence
before the Commissioners of Inquiry on Crown Lands and Emigration; and it
was in answer to questions put to him that he said, 'I have been attached to the
station at Grosse Isle for the last six years My description applies down to the
present year. We had last year upwards of22,C00 emigrants. The poorer class
of Irish, and the English paupers, sent by parishes, were, on the arrival of ves-
sels, in many instances, entirely without provisions, so much so, that it was at-

107

ressary immediately to supply them with food from shore; and some of these
*hip» had already received food and water from other vessels with which they
had fallen in. Other vessels with the s.nme class of emigrants, were not entirely
destitute, but had suffered much privation by being placed on short allowance.
This destitution, or shortness of provisions, combined with dirt and bad ventila-
tion, had invariablv produced fevers of a contagions character, and occasioned
some deaths on the passage; and from such vessels numbers, varying from 20
to 90 each vessel, had been admitted to hospital with contagious levers immedi-
ately on their arrival I attribute the whole evil to defective arrangement-; : for
instance, parish emigrants from England leceive rations of biscuit and beef, or
port-, often of bail quality (of this 1 am aware from personal inspection); they
are incapable from sea-sickness of using this solid food <*t the beginning of the
passage, when, for want of small stores, such as tea, sugfti", coffee, oatmeal, and
flour, they fall into a state of debility and low spirits, hyjwhich they are incapa.
citated from the exertions required, for cleanliness and exercise, and also indis-
posed to solid food, more particularly the women and children; and, on their ar-
rival here, I find many cases of typhus fever among them-' * * ' I also wish
to mention as loudly calling for remedy, a system of extortion carried on by mas-
ters of vessels, chiefly from Ireland, whence come the bulk of our emigrants.
The captain tells emigrants the passage will be made in three weeks or a month,
and they n-ed not lav m provisions for any longer period, well knowing that the
average passage is six weeks, and that it often extends to eight or nine weeks.
When the emigrant's stores are exhausted, the captain, who has laid in a stock
for the purpose, obliges them to pay often as much as 400 per cent, on the cost
price for the means of subsistence, and thus robs (lie poor emigrant of his last
shilling. Such cases are of frequent occurrence, even down to the present year.'
* ' * * ' Parish emigrants are generally at the mercy of the captain or mate, who,
serve out the provisions, and who frequently put emigrants on short allowance soon
after thtir departure. Complaints of short weight and bad quality in the provisions
are frequently made.' * * * ' The captains have in many instances told
me, that the agents only muster the passengers on deck, inquire into the quanti-
ty of provisions, and, in some cases require them to be produced, when occasion-
ally the same bag of meal or other provisions was shown as belonging to several
persons u\ succession. This the captain discovered after sailing The mere
mustering of the passengers on deck, without going below, where the provisions
are kept, is really no inspection at all; and it frequently happens that passengers
are smuggled on board without any provisions.' * # * ' Very few of these
Vessels have on board a sufficient quantity of water, the casksbeing insufficient in
riumber, and very many of them old oak casks, made up with pine heads which
therefore leak, if they do not fall to pieces, which often happens. I have had many
similar cases from Liverpool.' * * * • That part of the law which regulate*
the height between decks of emigrant ships is frequently evaded in the smaller
class of vessels, by means of a false deck some distance below the beams, bring.
nrg the passengers nearly in contact with (he damp ballast, pressing them into
the narrow part of trie ship, and the beams taking an important part of the room
allotted to them by law. It is quite impossible that such fittings should escape
observation in the port of departure, if that part of the vessel intended for emi.
grants be visited ' * * * ' There is another evil which might be readily ob-
viated by a proper selection of vessels at home — that of employing as emigrant
ships vessels that are scarcely sea worthy ; and which, consequently being unable
to carry sail, make very long passages As the tonnage of the best class of ves-
sels coming to Canada is more than sufficient to bring all the emigrants in any
year, the employment of the>e bad ships ought not to be permitted.' * * *
4 The reports made to me by the class of captains and surgeon superintendent;
now bringing passengers, are seldom to be relied upon. In illu*tralion, I beg
leave to mention a case that occurred last year. It was a vessel with about 150
passengers on board, from an Irish port. The captain assured me that they had
no sickness on board ; and the surgeon produced a li-t, which he signed, of cer-
tain slight aliments, such as bowel complaints and catarrhs, which had occurred
during the passage, and which appeared on the list with the remark 'cured' to

108

all of thein. On making my usual personal inspection, I found and sent to the
hospital upwards of 40 cases of typhus fever, of which nine were below in bed, —
these nine they had not been abie to get out of bed. Many of the others
were placed against the bulwark?, to make a show of being in health, with pieces
of bread and hot potatoes in thtir hands. As there are many most respectable
captains in the lumber trade, a proper selection by the emigrant agents at
home would prevent this abuse.' ******* The medical superintend-
ence on board vessels, obliged by the Passengers' Act to carry a surgeon is very
defective. The majority of such persons called surgeons are unlicensed students
and apprentices, or apothecaries' shopmen, without sufficient medical knowledge
to be of any service to the emigrants, either for the prevention or cure of diseases.
On board a ship the knowledge of the means of preventing disease in such a sit-
uation is the first requisite in a medical man, and in this the medical superintend-
ents are lamentably deficient. It is not much better as to the cure of diseases.
I boarded a ship last year, of which the captain and three passengers, who had
met with accidents, had their limbs bandaged for supposed fractures, which, up-
on examination, I found were only simple strains or bruises. On examining the
captain's arm. I said that there had been no fracture. The surgeon, so called,
replied — * I assure you that the tibia and fibula are both broken.' It happens
that the tibia and fibula are bones of the leg. This is an extreme case, apparent-
ly ; but it is not an unfair illustration of the ignorance and presumption of the
class of men appointed to comply with that part of the act which is intended to
provide for the medical care of emigrants during the voyage."

The Agent-General's report, which was laid before Patliament last year, does
not even allude to another feature of our system of emigration, on which I have
yet to offer some remarks. However defective the present arrangements for the
passage of emigrants, they are not more so than the means employed to provide
for the comfort and prosperity of this class after their arrival in the colonies. —
Indeed, it may be said that no such means are in existence. It will be seen, from
the very meagre evidence of the agent for emigrants at Quebec, that the office
which he holds is next to useless. I cast no blame on the officer, but would only
explain, that he has no powers, nor scarcely any duties to perform. Nearly all
that is done for the advantage of poor emigrants, after they have passed the
Lazaretto, is performed by the Quebec and Montreal Emigrants' Societies — be-
nevolent associations of which I am bound to speak in the highest terms of com-
mendation ; to which, indeed we owe whatever improvement has taken place in the
yet unhealthy mid-passage, but which, as they were instituted for the main pur-
pose of relievirg the inhabitants of the two cities from the miserable spectacle of
crowds of unemployed and starving emigrants, so have their efforts produced
little other good than that of facilitating the progress of poor emigrants to the
United States, where the industrious of every class are always sure of employ-
ment at good wages. In the report on emigration, to which I have alluded be-
fore. I find favourable mention of the principle of entrusting some parts of the
conduct of emigration rather to *• charitable committees" than to " an ordinary
department of Government." From thus doctrine I feel bound to express my
entire dissent. 1 can scarcely imagine any obligation which it is more incumbent
on Government to fulfil than that of guarding against an improper selection of
emigrants, and securing to poor persons disposed to emigrate every possible faci-
lity and assistance, from the moment of their intending to leave this country, to
that of their comfortable establishment in the colony. No less an obligation is
incurred by the Government, when, as is now the case, they invite poor persons
to emigrate by tens of thousands every year. It would, indeed, be very mis-
chievous if the Government were to deprive emigrants of self-reliance, by doing
everything for them ; but when the State leads great numbers of people into a
situation in which it is impossible that they should do well without assistance,
then the obligation to assist them begins ; and it never ends, in my humble opi-
nion, until those who have relied on the truth and paternal care of the Govern-
ment are placed in a situation to take care of themselves. How little this obliga-
tion has been regarded, as respects emigration to your Majesty's North American
colonies, will be «een from the following evidence : —

109

Mr. Buchanan, the chief agent for emigrants at Quebec, says, " I hare- no
•ommunication from the Agent General of Emigration;" and "the instructions
I have mentioned as regulating the proceedings of my office do not, I conceive,
contain any specific directions as to the duties I have to perform. la fact, they
were not addressed to my office at all. I suppose that they were transmitted to
Iny predecessor, in order l hat he might be acquainted with the views of the home
Government on the subject." '• There may have been specific instructions for
the guidance of the agent for emigrants, but I am not aware of any. I have
myself followed the routine that 1 found established."

Dr Skey says, " A pauper emigrant on his arrival in this Province is gener-
ally either with nothing or with a very small sum in his pocket ; entertaining the
most erroneous ideas as to his prospects here; expecting immediate and constant
employment, at ample wages; entirely ignorant of the nature of the country;
and of the place where labour is most in demand, and of the best means by which
to obtain employment. He has landed from the ship, and from his apathy and
want of energy has loitered about the wharves, waiting for the offer of employ-
ment; or, if he obtained employment, he calculated upon its permanency, and
found himself, at the beginning of the winter, when there is little or no employ-
ment for labour in this part of the country, discharged, and without any provi-
sion for the wants of a Canadian winter. In this way emigrants have often ac-
cumulated in Quebec at the end of summers, encumbered it with indigent inhabi-
tants, and formed the most onerous burden on the charitable funds of the com-
munity."

Mr. Forsyth says, "Emigration has improved of late years with regard to the
destitute sick and to the totally destitute by means of the Emigrant Society, and
the fund raised by the emigrant tax; but with regard to the main body of emi-
grants, the evil results of a total want of system are as conspicuous as ever The
great evils that have hitherto existed have arisen fom the want of system, and
especially from the want of all adequate means of information, advice, and guar-
dianship. This want of information necessarily gives a vagrant character to their
movements. Unable to obtain information as to the best mode of proceeding in
this Province, they move onward to Toronto, and find the same want there; they
become disgusted, and leave the Province in large numbers, to become citizens of
the American Union. My observation on the subject has led me to estimate the
proportion of emigrants from Britain who proceed to the United States at 60 in
100 during the last few years."

Mr. Stayner says, " Many of those poor people have little or no agricultural
knowledge, even in a general way ; and they are all ignorant of the husbandry
practised in the country. The consequence is, that, after getting into 'the bush,'
as it is called, they find themselves beset by privations and difficulties which they
are notable to contend with, and, giving way under the pressure, they abandon
their little improvements to seek a livelihood elsewhere. Many resort to the large
towns in the Province, with their starving families, to eke out by day-labour and
begging together a wretched existence ; whilst ot hers of them (more enterprising)
are tempted, by the reputed high wages and more genial climate of the United
States, to try their fortunes in that country. Now and then, some individual bet-
ter gifted, and possessing more energy of character than < he mass of adventurers
who arrive, will successfully contend with those difficulties, and do well for himself
and family; but the proportion of such is small."

Mr. Jessopp says, " Emigrants sent out by parishes are very generally inferior,
both morally and physically, to those who have found their own way out. The
parishes have sent out persons far too old to gain their livelihood by work, and
often of drunken and improvident habits. These emigrants have neither bene-
fitted themselves nor the country; and this is very natural, for judging from the
class sent out, the object must have been the getting rid of them, and not either
the benefit of themselves or the colony. An instance occurred very recently
which illustrates this subject. A respectable settler in the eastern townships
lately returned from England in a vessel, on board of which there were 136 pau-
per passengers sept out at the expense of their parishes ; and out of the whole

110

nnmber he could only select two that he whs desirous of inducing to settle in the
ea*ter» townships. The conduct of the others, both male and female, was so bad,
that he expressed his wish that they might proceed to the Upper Province, instead
of settling in this district He alluded principally to gross drunkenness and un-
chastity The inhabitants of Quebec and Montreal are subject to constant appeals
from persons who arrive here, and linger about in a state of total destitution."

The most striking exsmpie. however, of the want of sv stem and precaution on
the part of Government is that of the old soldiers, termed, Commuted Pensioners,
of whom neatly 3.000 reached the colonies in the years 1832 and 1833. A full
description of the fate of these unfortunate people will be found in the evidence
of Mr. Davidson, and others. Many of them landed in Quebec before the instruc-
tions had been received in the colony to pay them the sums to which they were
to be entitled on their wrrival, and even before the provincial Government knew
of their departure from England Many of them spent the amount of their com-
mutation money in debauchery, or were robbed of it when intoxicated. Many
never attempted to settle upon the land awarded to them ; and of those who made
the attempt, several were unable to discover whereabouts in the wilderness their
grants were situated. Many of them sold their right to the land for a mere trifle,
and were left, within a few weeks of their arrival, in a state of absolute want. Of
the whole number who landed in the colony, probably not one in three attempted
t;» establish themselves on their grants, and not one in six remain settled thereat
the present time; the remainder generally lingered in the vicinity of the principal
towns, where they contrived to pick up a subsistence by begging and occasional
labour. Great numbers perished miseiahly in the two years of cholera, or from
diseases engendered by exposure and privations, and aggravated by their disso-
lute habits. The majority of them have at length disappeared. The situation of
those who survive calls loudly for some measure of immediate relief; it is one of
extreme destitution and suffering. Their land is almost entirely useless, and they
cannot obtain nny adequate employment, either as farm labourers or domestic
servants At the commencement of every winter, therefore, they are thrown
upon the charity of individu als. In the Upper Province their situation is equally
deplorable, and numbers must have perished from absolute starvation if they had
not been fff\ by the provincial Government. I confidently trust that their pensions
may be restored, and that, in future, whenever the Government shall interfere
4trectly or indirectly in promoting the emigration of poor persons to these colo-
nies, it will be under some systematic arrangements calculated to prevent the
selection of classes disqualified from gaining by their removal, and to guard the-
other classes from the misfortunes into which they are now apt to fall through
ignorance of the new country, and the want of all preparation for their arrival.

It is far from my purpose, in laying these facts before your Majesty, to discou-
rage emigration to your Majesty's North American colonies. On the contrary, I
•m satisfied that the chief value of these colonies to the mother country consists
in their presenting a field where millions even, of those who are distressed at home,
might be established in plenty and happiness All the gentlemen whose evidence
I have last quoted are warm advocates of systematic emigration, I object, along
with them, only to such emigration as now takes pla< e— -without forethought,
preparation, method or system of any kind

I have now brought under review, the most prominent features of the
condition and institutions of the British Colonies in North America. It
has been my painful task to exhibit a state of things which cannot be
contemplated without grief, by all who value the well-being of our Colo-
nist) fellow-countrymen, and the integrity of the British Empire. I have
described the operation of those causes of division which unhappily exist
in the xevy composition of society; the disorder produced by the working
of an ill-contrived Constitutional system, and the practical mis-manage-
inent which these fundamental defects have generated in every department
of GovemmeuL

Ill

It is not necessary that I snoukl take amy pains to prove, that this is *
State of things which should hot, which cannot continue. Neither the
political nor the social existence of any community, can bear much longer
the operation of those causes which have, in Lower Canada, already pro-
duced a long practical cessation of the regular course of Constitutional
Government— which have occasioned the violation and necessitated the
absolute Suspension of the Provincial Constitution — and which have -re-
sulted in two insurrections — two substitutions of Martial for Civil Law —
and two periods of a general abeyance of every guarantee that is consi-
dered essential for the protection of a British Subject's rights. I have
already described the state of feeling which prevails among each of the
•Contending parties, or rather their races; their all-pervading and irre-
conoileable enmity to each other; the entire and irremediable disaffection
of the whole French population, as well as the suspicion with which the
English regard the Imperial Government ; and the determination of the
French, together with the tendency of the English to seek for a redress
ef their intolerable present evils in the chances of a separation from Great
Britain. The disorders of Lower Canada admit of no delay ; the existing
form of Government is but a iempoiary and forcible subjugation. The
recent Constitution is one of which neither party would tolerate the re-
establishment, and of which the bad working has been such that no friend
to liberty or to order could desire to see the Province again subjected to
its mischievous influence. Whatever may be the difficulty of discovering
a remedy, its urgency is certain and obvious.

Nor do I believe that the necessity for adopting some extensive and
^decisive measure for the pacification of Upper Canada, is at all less im-
perative. From the account which 1 have given of the causes of disorder
in that 'Province, it will be seen that I do not consider them by any means
df such a nature as to be irremediable, or even to be susceptible of no
'rdftiedy that shall not effect an organic change in the existing Constitu-
tion. It cannot be denied, indeed, that the continuance of the many
^radticalgrievances which i have described as subjects of complaint, and
above all, the determined resistance to such a system of responsible Gov-
ernment, as would give the people a real control over its own destinies.
Irave, together with the irritation caused by the late insurrection, induced
a large portion of the population to look with envy at the material pros-
perity of their neighbours in the United States, under a perfectly free anil
eminently responsible Government ; and, in despair of obtaining such
benefits under their present institutions, to desire the adoption of a Repub-
lican Constitution, or even an incorporation with the American.Union*— •
But I am inclined to think, that such feelings have made no formidable
or irreparable progress ; on the contrary, I believe that all the discon-
tented parties, and especially the Reformers of Upper Canada, look with
considerable confidence to the result of my mission. The different par-
ties believe that when the case is once fairly put before the Mother Coun-
try, the desired chrmges in the policy of their Government wiil be readily
granted : they are now tranquilfand I believe loyal; determined to abide
(He decision of the Home Government, and to defend their property and
their country against rebellion and invasion. But I cannot but express
my 'belief, that this is the last-effort of their almost exhausted patience-*-
and that the disappointment of their hopes on the present occasion, will
destroy for ever their 'expectation of good resulting from British con-
nection. I do not mean to say that they will renew the rebellion, much*

112

•less do I imagine that they will array themselves in such force as will- be
able to tear the government of their country from the hands of the great
military power which Great Britain can bring against them. If now
frustrated in their expectations, and kept in hopeless subjection to rulers
irresponsible to the people, they will, at best, only await in sullen prudence
the contingencies which may render the preservation of the province de-
pendent on the devoted loyalty of the great mass of its popularion.

With respect to the other North American provinces, I will not speak
of such evils as imminent, because I firmly believe that, whatever discon-
tent there may be, no irritation subsists which in any way weakens the
'strong feeling of attachment to the British Crown and Empire. Indeed,
throughout the whole of the North American provinces, there prevails
among the British population an affection for the mother country, and a
preference for its institutions, which a wise and firm policy on the part of
the Imperial Government may make the foundation of a safe, honourable,
and enduring connexion. But even this feeling may be impaired, and
I must warn those in whose hands the disposal of their destinies rests,
that a blind reliance on the all-enduring loyalty of our countrymen may
be carried too far. It is not politic to waste and cramp their resources,
and to allow the backwardness of the British Provinces everywhere to
present a melancholy contrast to the progress and prosperity of the Uni-
ted States. Throughout the course of the preceding pages, I have con-
stantly had occasion to refer to this contrast. I have not hesitated to do
so, though no mail's just pride in his country, and firm attachment to its
institutions, can be more deeply shocked by the mortifying admission of
inferiority. But I should ill discharge my duty to Your Majesty, I
should give but an imperfect view of the real condition of these Pro-
vinces, were I to detail mere statistical facts, without describing the feel-
ings which they generate in those who observe them daily, and daily
experience their influence on their own fortunes. The contrast which I
have described, is the theme of every traveller who visits these countries,
and who observes on one side of the line the abundance, and on the other
the scarcity, of every sign of material prosperity which thriving agicul-
ture and flourishing cities indicate, and of that civilization which schools
and churches testify even to the outward senses. While it excites the
exultation of the enemies of British institutions, its reality is more
strongly evinced by the reluctant admission of Your Majesty's most at-
tached subjects. It is no true loyalty to hide from Your Majesty's
knowledge the existence of an evil which it is in Your Majesty's power,
as it is Your Majesty's benevolent pleasure, to remove : for the possibili-
ty of reform is yet afforded by the patient and fervent attachment
which Your Majesty's English subjects in all these Provinces still feel to
their allegiance and their mother country. Calm reflection and loyal
confidence have retained these feelings unimpaired, even by the fearful
drawback of the general belief that every's man property is of less value
on the British than on the opposite side of the boundary. It is time to re-
ward this noble confidence by showing that men have not indulged in
vain the hope that there is a power in British institutions to rectify ex-
isting evils, and to produce in their place a well-being which no other
dominion could give. It is not in the terrors of the law or in the might
of our armies that the secure and honorable bond of connexion is. to be
found. It exists in the beneficial operation of those British institution*
which link the utmost development of freedom and civilization with the

113

utable authority of an hereditary monarchy, and which, if rightly organ-
ized and fairly administered in the colonies, as in Great Britain, would
render a change of institutions only an additional evil to the loss of the
protection and commerce of the British Empire.

But while I count thus confidently on the possibility of a permanent
and advantageous retention of our connexion with these important colo-
nies, I must not disguise the mischief and danger of holding them in their
present state of disorder. I rate the chances of successful rebellion as
the least danger in prospect. I do not doubt that the British Government
can, if it choose to retain these dependencies at any cost, accomplish its
purpose. I believe that it has the means of enlisting one part of the
population against the other, and of garrisoning ihe Canadas with regu-
lar troops sufficient to awe all internal enemies. But even this will not
Le done without great expense and hazard. The experience of the last
two years furnishes only a foretaste of the cost to which such a system of
government will subject us. On the lowest calculation, the addition of
£1,000,000 a year to our annual colonial expenditure will barely enable
us to attain this end. Wtihout a change in our system of Government,
the discontent which now prevails, will spread and advance. As the cost
of retaining these colonies increases, their value will rapidly diminish;
and if by such means the British nation shall be content to retain a bar-
ren and injurious soveieignty, it will but tempt the chances of foreign ag-
gression, by keeping continually exposed to a powerful and ambitious
neighbour, a distant dependency, in which an invader would find no re-
sistance, but might rather reckon on active co-operation from a portion
of the resident population.

I am far from presenting this risk in a manner calculated to irritate the
just pride which would shrink from the thoughts of yielding to the mena-
ces of a rival nation. Because, important as I consider the foreign re-
lations of this question, I do not believe that there is now any very proxi-
mate danger of a collision with the United States, in consequence of
that power desiring to take advantage of the disturbed state of the Ca-
nadas. In the despatch of the 9th of August 1 have described my im-
pression of the state of feeling with respect to the Lower Canadian in-
surrection, which had existed, and was then in existence hi the United
States. Besides the causes of hostile feeling which originate in th©
mere juxtaposition of that power to our North American Provinces, X
described the influence which had been undoubtedly exercised by that
mistaken political sympathy with the insurgents of Lower Canada, which
the inhabitants of the United States were induced to entertain. There
is no people in the world so little likely as that of the United States to
sympathize with the real feelings and policy of the French Canadians ;
no people so little likely to share in their anxiety to preserve ancient and
barbarous laws, and to check the industry and improvement of their
country, in order to gratify some idle and narrow notion of a petty and
visionary nationality. The Americans who have visited Lower Canada,
perfectly understand the real truth of the case; they see that the quarrel
is a quarrel of races; and they certainly show very little inclination to
take part wirh the French Canadians and their institutions. Of the
great number of American travellers, coming from all parts of the union
who visited Quebec during my residence there, and whose society I, to-
gether with the gentlemen attaohed to my mission, had the advantage of
P

114

enjoying, not one ever expressed to any of us any approbation of what
may be termed the national objects of the French Canadians, while
many did not conceal a strong aversion to them. There is no people in
the world to whom the French Canadian institutions are more intolera-
ble when circumstances compel submission to them. But the mass of
the American people had judged of the quarrel from a distance ; they
had been obliged to form their judgment on the apparent grounds of the
controversy ; and were thus deceived, as all those are apt to be who
judge under such circumstances and on such grounds. The contest bore
some resemblance to that great struggle of their own forefathers, which
they regard with the highest pride. Like that, they believed it to be a
contest of a colony against the empire whose misconduct alienated their
own country ; they considered it to be a contest undertaken by a people
professing to seek independence of distant control and extension of pop-
ular privileges ; and finally, a contest of which the first blow was struck
in consequence of a violation of a colonial constitution, and the appropri-
ation of the colonial revenues without the consent of the colonists. It
need not surprise us that such apparently probable and sufficient causes
were generally taken by the people of the United States a3 completely
accounting for the whole dispute; that the analogy between the Canadi-
an insurrection and the war of independence was considered to be satis-
factorily made out; and that a free and high-spirited people eagerly de-
monstrated its sympathy with those whom it regarded as gallantly at-
tempting, with unequal means, to assert that glorious cause which its
own fathers had triumphantly upheld.

In the case of Upper Canada, I believe the sympathy to have been
much more strong and durable ; and, though the occasion of the contest
was -apparently less marked, 1 have no doubt that this was more than
compensated by the similarity of language and manners, which enabled
the rebels of the Upper Province to present their case much more easily
and forcibly to those whose sympathy and aid they sought. The inci-
dents of any struggle of a large portion of a people with its Government
are sure, at some time or another, to elicit some sympathy with those
who appear, to the careless view of a foreign nation, only as martyrs to
the popular cause, and as victims of a government conducted on princi-
ples differing from its own ; and i imve no doubt that if the internal
struggle be renewed, the sg mpatb.y from without will, at some time or
another, reassume its former strength.

For it must be recollected that the natural tins of sympathy, betweeo
the English population of the Canada*, and the inhabitants of the fron-
tier states of tlie Union are peculiarly strong. Not only do they speak
the same language, living under laws having the same origin, and pre-
serve the same customs and habits., but there is a positive alternation, if
I.ro.ay .so express it, of the populations of the two countries. While
large tracts of the Uritish territory £*e peopled for -American citizensy
A\ho still keep, tip a constant connexion with their kindred and friends,
the neighbouring states are filled with emigrants from Great Britain,
some, of whom have quitted Canada after unavailing efToris to rind there,
a profitable return for their capital and labour, and many of .whom have,
settled in the United States, while other members of their families, and
the companions of their youth, have taken up their abode on the other
side of the frontier. I had no means of ascertaining the exact degree of
truth in some statements which 1 have heard respecting the number of

116

Irish settled in the state of New Yoik ; but it is commonly asserted that
there are no less than 40,000 Irish in the militia of that state. The in-
tercourse between these two divisions of what is, in fact, an identical
population, is constant and universal. The border townships of Lower
Canada are separated f om the United States by an imaginary line ; a
great part of the frontier of Upper Canada, by rivers, which are crossed
in ten minutes; and the rest by lakes, which interpose hardly a six
hours' passage between the inhabitants of each side. Every man's dailv
occupations bring him in contact with his neighbours on the other side. of
the line; the daily wants of one country are supplied by the produce of
-the other ; and the population of each is in some degree dependent -on
the state of trade and the demands of the other. Such common wants
beget an interest in the politics of each country among the citizens of
the other. The newspapers circulate in some places almost equally on
the different sides of the line, and men discover that their welfare is fre-
quently as much involved in the political condition of their neighbours as
of their own countiymen.

The danger of any serious mischief from this cause appears to me to
be less at the present moment than for some time past. The events of
the last year, and the circulation of more correct information respecting
the real causes of contention, have apparently operated very successfully
against the progress or continuance of this species of sympathy ; and I
have the satisfaction of believing that the policy which was pursued du-
ring my administration of the government was very efficient in removing
it. The almost complete unanimity of the press of the United States,
as well as the assurance of individuals conversant with the state of public
opinion in that country, convince me that the measures which 1 adopted,'
met with a concurrence that completely turned the tide of feeling in fa->
vour of the British Government. Nor can I doubt, from the unvarying
evidence that I have received from all persons who have recently travell-
ed through the frontier states of the Union, that there hardly exists at the
present moment the slightest feeling which can properly be called sym-
pathy. Whatever aid the insurgents have recently received from citi-
zens of the United States, may either be attributed to those national ani-
mosities which are the too sure .result of past wars, or to those undis-
guised projects of conquest and rapine which, since the invasion of Tex-
as, find but too much favour among the daring population of the fron-
tiers. Judging from the c-haracter and behaviour of the Americans most
prominent in the recent aggressions on Upper Canada, they seem to have
been produced mainly by the latter cause ; nor does any cause appear to
have secured to the insurgents of Lower Canada any very extensive aid,
except that in money and munitions of war, of which the source cannot
very clearly be traced. Hardly any Americans took part in the recent
disturbances in Lower Canada. Last year the outbreak was the signal
for numerous public meetings in all the great cities of the frontier states,
from Buffalo to New York. At these the most entire sympathy with the
insurgents was openly avowed ; large subscriptions were raised, and vol-
unteers invited to join. Since the last outbreak no such manifestations
have taken place : the meetings which the Nelsons and others have at-
tempted in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and elsewhere, have
ended in complete failure; and at the present moment there does not
exist the slighest indication of any sympathy with the objects of the
Lower Canadian insurgents, or of any desire to co-operate with them for

116

^o'fitictti purposes. The danger, however, which may be apprehended
from the mere desire to repeat the scenes of Texas in the Canadas, is a
danger from which we cannot be secure while the disaffection of any
considerable portion of the population continues to give an appearance
of weakness to our Government. It is in vain to expect that such at-
tempts can wholly he repressed by the Federal Government, or that they
could even be effectually counteracted by the utmost exertion of its au-
thority, if any sudden turn of affairs should again revive a strong and
general sympathy with insurrection in Canada. Without dwelling on
the necessary weakness of a merely federal government — without advert-
ing to the difficulty which authorities dependent for their very existence
on the popular will, find in successfully resisting a general manifestation
of public feeling, the impossibility which any Government would find in
restraining a population like that which dwells along the thousand miles
of this frontier, must be obvious to all, who reflect on the difficulty of
maintaining the police of a dispersed community.

Nor is this danger itself unproductive of feelings which are in their
turn calculated to produce yet further mischief. The loyal people of Ca-
nada, indignant at the constant damage and terror occasioned by incur-
sions from the opposite shore, naturally turn their hostility against the
nation and the government which permit, and which they accuse even of
conniving at the violation of international law and justice. Mutual re-
criminations are bandied about from one side to the other; and the very
facilities of intercourse which keep alive the sympathy between portions
bf the two populations, afford at the same time occasions for the collision
of angry passions and national antipathies. The violent party papers on
each side, and the various bodies, whose pecuniary interests a war would
promote, foment the strife. A large portion of each population endeav-
ors to incite its own Government to war, and at the same time labours to
produce the same result by irritating the national feelings of the rival
community. Rumors are diligently circulated by the Canadian press,
and every friendly act of the American people or Government, appears
to be systematically subjected to the most unfavorable construction. It
is not only to be apprehended that this state of mutual suspicion and dis-
like may be brought to a head by acts of mutual reprisals, but that the
officers of the respective Governments, in despair of preserving peace,
may take little care to prevent the actual commencement of war.

Though I do trot believe that there ever was a time in which the spe*
cific relations of the two countries rendered it less likely, that the United
States would imagine that a war with England could promote their own
interests, yet it cannot be doubted that the disturbed state of the Canadas
h a serious drawback on the prosperity of a great part of the Union.
Instead of presenting an additional field for their commercial enterprise,
these Provinces, in their present state of disorder, are rather a barrier
to-their industrial energies. The present state of things also occasions
great expense to the Federal Government, which has been under the
necessity of largely augmenting its small army, on account chiefly of the
troubles of Canada.

Nor must we forget, that whatever assurances and proofs of amicable
feeling we may receive from the Government of the United States, how-
ever strong may be the ties of mutual pacific interests that bind the two
nations together, there are subjects of dispute which may produce less
friendly feelings. National interests are now in question between us, of

in

"which the immediate adjustment is demanded by every motive of poHcy*
These interests cannot be supported with the necessary vigour while dis-
affection in a most important part of mir North American possessions
appears to give an enemy a certain means of inflicting injury and humi-
liation on the empire.

But the chances of rebellion or foreign invasion are not those which I
regard as either the most probable or the most injurious. The experience
of the last two years suggests the occurrence of a much more speedy and
disastrous result. I dread, in fact, the completion of the sad work of
depopulation and impoverishment which is now rapidly going on. The
present evil is not merely, that improvement is stayed, and that the wealth
and population of these colonies do not increase according to the rapid
scale of American progress. No accession of population takes place by
immigration, and no capital is brought into the country. On the con-
trary, both the people and the capital seem to be quitting these distracted
Provinces. From the French portion of Lower Canada there has, for a
long time, been a large annual emigration of young men to the northern
Mates of the American Union, in which they are highly valued as labour-
ers, and gain good wages, with their savings from which they generally
return to their homes in a few months or years. 1 do not believe that
the usual amount of this emigration has been increased during the last
year, except by a few persons prominently compromised in the insurrec-
tion, who have sold their property and made up their minds to a perpe-
tual exile ; but I think that there is some reason to believe that, among
the class of habitual emigrants whom I have described, a great many
now take up their permanent residence in the United States. But the
•stationary habits and local attachment of the French Canadians render it
little likely that they will quit their country in great numbers. I am not
aware that there is any diminution of the British population from such a
cause. The employment of British capital in the Province is not mate-
rially checked in the principal branch of trade, and the main evils are
the withdrawal of enterprising British capitalists from the French portion
of the country, the diminished employment of the capital now in the
Province, and the entire stoppage of all increase of the population by
means of immigration. But from Upper Canada the withdrawal both of
capital and of population has been very considerable. I have received
accounts from most respectable sources of a very numerous emigration
from the whole of the western and London districts. It was said by
persons who prefessed to have witnessed it, that considerable numbers
had for a long time daily passed over from Amherstburgh and Sandwich
to Detroit; and a most respectable informant stated that he had seen in
one of the districts which I have mentioned no less than 15 vacant farms
together on the road side. A body of the reforming party have avowed,
in the most open manner, their intention of emigrating from political
motives, and publicly invited all who might be influenced by similar feel-
ings to join in their enterprise. For this the Mississippi Emigration So-
ciety has been formed, with the purpose of facilitating emigration from
Upper Canada to the new territory of the union, called iowa, on the west
•bank of the Upper Mississippi. The prospectus of the undertaking, and
the report of the deputies who were sent to examine the country in ques-
tion, were given in the public press, and the advantages of the new
•colony strongly enforced by the Reformers, and depreciatingly discussed
by the friends of the Government. The number of persons who hav«

118

thus emigrated is not, however, I have reason to believe, as great as it
has often been represented. Many who might be disposed to take such
a step cannot sell their farms on fair terms ; and though some, relying
on the ease with which land is obtained in the United States, have been
content to remove merely their stock and their chattels, yet there are
others again who cannot at the last make the sacrifices which a forced
sale would necessitate, and who continue, even under their present state
of alarm, to remain in hopes of better times. In the districts which bor-
der on the St. Lawrence little has, in fact, come of the determination to
emigrate which was loudly expressed at one time. And some even of
those who actually left the country are said to have returned. But the
instances which have come to my knowledge induce me to attapth even
more importance to the class, than to the alleged number of the emi-
grants ; and I can by no means agree with some of the dominant
party, that the persons who thus leave the country are disaffected sub-
jects, whose removal is a great advantage to loyal and peaceable men. —
In a country like Upper Canada, where the introduction of population
and capital is above all things needful for its prosperity, and almost for
its continued existence, it would be more prudent, as well as just, more
the interest as well as the duty of Government, to remove the causes of
disaffection, than to drive out the disaffected. But there is no ground
for asserting that all the Reformers who have thus quitted the country are
disloyal and turbulent men ; nor indeed is it very clear that all of thein
are Reformers, and that the increasing insecurity of person and property
have not, without distinction of politics, driven out some of the most
valuable settlers of the Province. A great impression has been lately
made by the removal of one of the largest proprietors of the Province, a
gentleman who arrived there not many years ago from Trinidad ; who
has taken no prominent, and certainly no violent part in politics ; and
who has now transferred himself and his property to the United States,
simply because in Upper Canada he can find no secure investment for
the latter, and no tranquil enjoyment of life. I heard of another English
gentlemen, who, having resided in the country for six or seven years, and
invested large sums in bringing over a superior breed of cattle and sheep,
was, while I was there, selling off his stock and implements, with a view
of settling in Illinois. I was informed cf an individual who, 30 years
ago, had gone into the forest with his axe on his shoulder, and, with no
capital at starting, had, by dint of patient labour, acquired a farm and
stock which he had sold for £2,000, with which he went into the United
States. This man, I was assured, was only a specimen of a numerous
.class, to whose unwearied industry the growth and prosperity of the
colony are mainly to be ascribed. They are now driven from it, on
account of the present insecurity of all who, having in former times been
identified in politics with some of those who subsequently appeared as
prominent actors in the revolt, are regarded and treated as rebels, though
they had held themselves completely aioof from all participation in
schemes or acts of rebellion. Considerable alarm also exists as to the
general disposition to quit the country, which was said to have been pro-
duced by some late measures of the authorities among that mild and
industrious, but peculiar race of descendants of the Dutch, who inhabit
the back part of the Niagara district.

Such are the lamentable results of the political and social evils which
have so Jong agitated the Canadas; and such is their condition, that at

119

the present moment we are called on to take immediate precautions*
against dangers so alarming as those of rebellion, foreign invasion, and
utter exhaustion and depopulation. When I look on the various and
deep-rooted causes of mischief which the past inquiry has pointed out as
existing in every institution, in the constitutions, and in the very compo-
sition of society throughout a great part of these Provinces, I almost
shrink from the apparent presumption of grappling with these gigantic
difficulties. Nor shall I attempt to do so in detail. I rely on the efficacy
of reform in the Constitutional system, by which these Colonies are gov-
erned, for the removal of every abuse in their administration, which de-
fective institutions have engendered. If a system can be devised which
shall lay, in these countries, the foundation of an efficient and popular
Government — insure harmony, in place of collision, between the various
powers of the State — and bring the influence of a vigorous public opinion
to bear on every detail of public affairs, we may rely on sufficient reme-
dies being found for the present vices of the administrative system.

The preceding pages have sufficiently pointed out the nature of those
evils, to the extensive operation of which I attribute the various practical
grievances, and the present unsatisfactory condition of the North Ameri-
can Colonies. It is not by weakening, but strengthening the influence of
the people on its Government; by confining within much narrower
bounds than those hitherto allotted to it, and not by extending the inter-
ference of the Imperial authorities in the details of Colonial affairs, that
I believe that harmony is to be restored, where dissension has so Jong
prevailed, and a regularity and vigour hitherto unknown introduced into
the administration of these Provinces. It needs no change in the princi-
ples of Government, no invention of a new constitutional theory, to sup-
ply the remedy which would, in my opinion, completely remove the exist-
ing political disorders. It needs but to follow out consistently the prin-
ciples of the British Constitution, and introduce into the Government of
these great Colonies those wise provisions, by which alone the working
of the representative system can in any country be rendered harmonious
and efficient. We are not now to consider the policy of establishing re-
presentative Government in the Nonh American Colonies. That has
been irrevocably done; and the experiment of depriving the people of
their present Constitutional power is not to be thought of. To conduct
their Government harmoniously, in accordance with its established prin-
ciples, is now the business of its rulers; and I know not how it is possi-
ble to secure that harmony in any other way, than by administering the
Government on those principles which have been found perfectly effica-
cious in Great Britain. I would not impair a single prerogative of the
Crown ; on the contrary, I beiieve that the interests of the people of
these Colonies require the protection of prerogatives, which have not
hitherto been exercised. But the Crown must, on the other hand, sub-
mit to the necessary consequences of representative institutions ; and if it
has to carry on the Government in unison with h representative body, it
must consent to carry it on by means of those in .whom that representative
body has confidence. '

In England this principle has been so long considered an indisputable
and essential part of our Constitution, that it has really hardly ever been
found necessary to inquire into the means by which its observance is en-
forced. When a Ministry ceases to command a majority in Parliament,
on great questions of policy, its doom is immediately sealed ; and it would

120

fcppear to us as strange to attempt, for any time, to carry on a Govern-
ment by means of Ministers perpetually til a minority, as it would be to
pass laws with a majority of votes against them. The ancient Constitu-
tional remedies, by impeachment and a stoppage of the supplies, have
never, since the reign of William III. been brought into operation for the
purpose of removing a Ministry. They have never been called for : be-
cause, in fact, it has been the habit of Ministers rather to anticipate the
occurrence of an absolutely hostile vote, and to retire, when supported
only by a bare and uncertain majority. If Colonial Legislatures have
frequently stopped the Supplies — if they have harrassed public servants
by unjust or harsh impeachments — it was because the removal of an un-
popular Administration could not be effected in the Colonies by those
milder indications of a want of confidence, which have always sufficed to
attain the end in the Mother Country.

The means which have occasionally been proposed in the Colonies
themselves, appear to me by no means calculated to attain the desired
end in the best way. These proposals indicate such a want of reliance
on the willingness of the Imperial Government to acquiesce in the adop-
tion of a better system, as, if warranted; would render an harmonious
adjustment of the different powers of the State utterly hopeless. An
Elective Executive Council would not only be utterly inconsistent wiih
Monarchical Government, but would really, under the nominal authority
of the Crown, deprive the community of one of the great advantages of
an hereditary Monarchy. Every purpose of popular control might be
combined with every advantage of vesting the immediate choice of advi-
sers in the Crown, were the Colonial Governor to be instructed to secure
the co-operation of the Assembly in his policy, by intrusting its adminis-
tration to such men as could command a majority, and if he were given
to understand that he need count on no aid from home in any difference
with the Assembly, that should not directly involve the relations between
the Mother Country and the Colony. This change might be effected by
a single Despatch, containing such instructions ; or if any legal enact-
ment were requisite, it would only be one that would render it necessary
that the official acts of ih« Governor should be countersigned by some
public functionary. This would induce responsibility for every act of the
Government, and, as a natural consequence, it would necessitate the
substitution of a system of administration, by means of competent Heads
of Departments, for the present rude machinery of an Executive Council.
The Governor, if he wished to retain advisers not possessing the confi-
dence of the existing Assembly, might rely on the effect of an appeal to
the people, and. if unsuccessful, lie might be coerced by a refusal of the
Supplies, or his advisers might be terrified by the prospect of impeach-
ment. But there can be no reason for apprehending that either party. I
would enter on a contest when each would find its interest in the mainte-
nance of harmony ; anrl the abuse of the powers which each would con*
stitutionally possess would cease.- 'when the struggle for larger powers
became unnecessary. Nor can I conceive, that it v.ou'.d be found impos- i
sible or difficult, to conduct a Colonial Government with precisely tiiat
limitation of th? respective powers which has been so long and so easily
maintained in Great Britain.

I know that it has been urged, that the principles which are productive
of harmony and good government in the mother country, are by no
means applicable to a colonial dependency. It is said that it is neces-

121

sary that tlie administration of a colony should be carried on by persons
nominated without any reference to the wishes of its people ; that they
have to carry into effect the policy, not of that people, but of the author-
ities at home; and that a colony which should name all its administrative
functionaries would, in fact, cease to be dependent. I admit that the sys-
tem which I propose would, in fact, place the internal government of the
colony in the hands of the colonists themselves ; and that we should thus
leave them to the execution of the laws, of which we have long intrusted
the making solely to them. Perfectly aware of the value of our colonial
possessions, and strongly impressed with the necessity of maintaining our
connection with them, I know not in what respect it can be desirable that
we should interfere with their internal legislation in matters which do
not affect their relations with the mother country. The matters which
so concern us are very few. The constitution of the form of Govern-
ment—the regulation of foreign relations, and of trade with the mother
country, the other British colonies, and foreign nations, and the disposal
of the public lands, are the only points on which the mother conntry re-
quires a control. This control is now sufficiently secured by the author-
ity of the Imperial Legislature, by the protection which the colony de-
rives from us against foreign enemies, by the beneficial terms which our
laws secure to its trade, and by its share of the reciprocal benefits
which would be conferred by a wise system of colonization. A perfect
subordination on the part of the colony on these points is secured by the
advantages which it finds in the continuance of its connexion with the
empire. It certainly is not strengthened, but greatly weakened, by a
vexatious interference on the part of the home government with the
enactment of laws for regulating the internal concerns of the colony, or
in the selection of the persons intrusted with their execution. The col-
onists may not always know what laws are best for them, or which of
their countrymen are the fittest for conducting their affairs; but at least,
they have a greater interest in coming to a right judgment on these
points, and will take greater pains to do so, than those whose welfare is
very remotely and slightly affected by the good or bad legislation of
these portions of the empire. If the colonists make bad laws, and select
improper persons to conduct their affairs, they will generally be the only,
always the greatest, sufferers; and, like the people of other countries,
they must bear the ills which they bring on themselves, until they choose
to apply the remedy. But it surely cannot be the duty or interest of
Great Britain to keep a most expensive military possession of these colo-
nies, in order that a Governor or Secretary of State may be able to con-
fer colonial appointments on one rather than another set of persons in
the colonies, for this is really the only question at issue. The slightest
acquaintance with these colonies proves the fallacy of the common no-
tion, that any considerable amount of patronage in them is distributed
among strangers from the mother country. Whatever inconvenience a
consequent frequency of changes among the holders of office may pro-
duce, is a necessary disadvantage of free government, which will be
amply compensated by the perpetual harmony which the system must
produce between the people and its rulers. Nor do I fear that the charac-
ter of the public servants will, in any respect, suffer from a more popu-
lar tenure of office. For I can conceive no system so calculated to fill
important posts with ineffieient persons as the present, in which public

Q

122

opinion is too little consulted in the original appointment, and in which
it is almost impossible to remove those who disappoint the expectations
of their usefulness, without inflicting a kind of brand on their capacity
or integrity.

I am well aware that many persons, both in the colonies and at home,
view the system which I recommend, with considerable alarm, because
they distrust the ulterior views of those by whom it was originally pro-
posed, and whom they suspect of urging its adoption with the intent only
of enabling them more easily to subvert monarchical institutions, or as-
sert the independence of the colony. I believe, however, that the extent
to which these ulterior views exist has been greatly overrated. We must
not take every rash expression of disappointment as an indication of a
settled aversion to the existing constitution ; and my own observation
convinces me that the predominant feeling of all the English popula-
tion of the North American Colonies is that of devoted attachment to
the mother country. I believe that neither the interests nor the feelings
of the people are incompatible with a colonial government wisely and
popularly administered. The proofs, which many who are much diss-
satisfied with the existing administration of the Government, have given
of their loyalty, are not to be denied or overlooked. The attachment
constantly exhibited by the people of these Provinces towards the British
Crown and Empire, has all the characteristics of a strong national feel-
ing. They value the institutions of their country, not merely from a
sense of the practical advantages which they confer, but from sentiments
of national pride ; and they uphold them the more because they are ac-
customed to view them as marks of nationality, which distinguish them
from their republican neighbours. I do not mean to affirm that this is a
feeling which no impolicy on the part of the mother country will be un-
able to impair ; but I do most confidently regard it as one which may,
if rightly appreciated, be made the link of an enduring and advantageous
connexion. The British people of the North American Colonies are a
people on whom we may safely rely, and to whom we must not grudge
power. For it is not to the individuals who have been loudest in de-
manding the change that I propose to concede the responsibility of the
colonial administration, but to the people themselves. Nor can I con-
ceive that any people, or any considerable portion of a people, will
view with dissatisfaction a change, which would amount simply to this,
that the Crown should henceforth consult the wishes of the people in the
choice of its servants.

The important alteration in the policy of the colonial government which
I recommend, might be wholly or in great part effected for the present by
the unaided authority of the Crown; and I believe that the great mass of
discontent in Upper Canada, which is not directly connected with per-
sonal irritation, arising out of the incidents of the late troubles, might be
dispelled by an assurance that the government of the colony should hence-
forth be carried on in conformity with the views of the majority in the
Assembly. But I think that for the well-being of the colonies, and
the security of the mother country, it is necessary that such a change
should be rendered more permanent than a momentary sense of the ex-
isting difficulties can insure its being. I cannot believe that persons in
power in this country will be restrained from the injudicious interference
with the internal management of these colonies which I deprecate, while
they remain the petty and divided communities which they now are. —

123

The public attention at home is distracted by the various and sometimes
contrary complaints of these different contiguous Provinces. Each now
-urges its demands at different times, and in somewhat different forms,
and the interests which each individual complainant represents as in peril
are too petty to attract the due attention of the empire. But if these
important and extensive colonies should speak with one voice, if it were
felt that every error of our colonial policy must cause a common suffer-
ing and a common discontent throughout the whole wide extent of British
America, those complaints would never be provoked ; because no autho-
rity would venture to run counter to the wishes of such a community,
except on points absolutely involving the few imperial interests which it
is necessary to remove from the jurisdiction of colonial legislation.

It is necessary that I should also recommend what appears to me an
essential limitation on the present powers of the representative bodies in
these colonies. I consider good government net to be attainable while the
presented unrestricted powers of voting public money and of managing
the local expenditure of the community are lodged in the hands of an
Assembly. As long as a revenue is raised which leaves a large surplus
after the payment of the necessary expenses of the civil government, and
as long as any member of the Assembly may, without restriction, propose
a vote of public money, so Jong will the Assembly retain in its hands the
powers which it every where abuses, of misapplying that money. The
prerogative of the Crown, which is constantly exercised in Great Britain
for the real protection of the people, oaght never to have been waved in
the colonies; and if the rule of the Imperial Parliament, that no money
vote should be proposed without the previous consent of the Crown, were
introduced into these colonies, it might be wisely employed in protecting
the public interests, now frequently sacrificed in that scramble for local
appropriations, which chiefly serves to give an undue influence to partic-
ular individuals or parties.

The establishment of a good system of municipal institutions through-
out these Provinces, is a matter of vital importance. A general legisla-
ture, which manages the private business of every parish, in addition to
the common business of the country, wields a power which no single body,
■however popular in its constitution, ought to have — a power which must
•be destructive of any constitutional balance. The true principle of lim-
iting popular power is that apportionment of it in many different deposi-
taries, which has been adopted in all the most free and stable states of the
'Union. Instead of confiding the whole collection and distribution of all
the revenues raised in any country for all general and local purposes to
a single representative body, the power of local assessment, and the appli-
cation of the funds arising from it, should be intrusted to local manage-
ment. It is in vain to expect that this sacrifice of power will be volunta-
rily made by any representative body. The establishment of municipal
institutions for the whole country should be made a part of every colonial
constitution, and the prerogative of the Crown should be constantly inter-
posed to check any encroachment on the functions of the local bodies,
until the people should become alive, as most assuredly they almost im-
mediately would be, to the necessity of protecting their local privileges.
The establishment of a sound and general system for the management
of the lands and the settlement of the colonies, is a necessary part of any
good and durable system of government. In a report contained in the
appendix to the present, the plan which I recommend for this purpose will
he fully developed.

124

These general principles apply, however, only to those changes in the
system of Government, which are required in order to rectify disorders
common to all the North American Colonies ; but they do not, in any
degree, go to remove those evils in the present state state of Lower Ca-
nada, which require the most immediate remedy. The fatal feud of ori-
gin, which is the cause of the most extensive mischief, would be aggra-
vated at the present moment, by any change which should give the
majority more power than they have hitherto possessed. A plan by
which it is proposed to insure the tranquil government of Lower Canada,
must include, in itself, the means of putting an end to the agitation of
national disputes in the Legislature, by settling, at once and foi ever, the
national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the na-
tional character which must be given to Lower Canada : it must be that
of the British Empire — that of the majority of the population of British
America — that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long
period of time, be predominant over the whole North American Conti-
nent. Without effecting the change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock
the feelings and trample on the welfare of the existing generation, it
must henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British Govern-
ment to establish an English population, with English laws and language,
in this Province, and to trust its Government to none but a decidedly
English Legislature.

It may be said, that this is a hard measure to a conquered people-
that the French were originally the whole, and still are the bulk, of the
population of Lower Canada — that the English are new-comers, who
have no right to demand the extinction of the nationality of a people
among whom commercial enterprise has drawn them. It may be said,
that if the French are not so civilized, so energetic, or so money-making
a race as that by which they are surrounded, they are an amiable, a vir-
tuous, and a contented people, possessing all the essentials of material
comfort, and not to be despised or ill-used, because they seek to enjoy
what they have, without emulating the spirit of accumulation which influ-
ences their neighbours. Their nationality is, after all, an inheritance—*
and they must be not too severely punished, because they have dreamed
of maintaining, on the distant banks of the St. Lawrence, and transmit-
ting to their posterity, the language, the manners, and the institutions of
that great nation, that for two centuries gave the tone of thought to the
European Continent. If the disputes of the two races are irreconcilable,
it may be urged that justice demands that the minority should be com-
pelled to acquiesce in the supremacy of the ancient and most numerous
occupants of the Province, and not pretend to force their own institutions
and customs on the majority.

But, before deciding which of the two races is now to be placed in the
ascendant, it is but prudent to inquire which of them must ultimately
prevail ; for it is not wise to establish to-day that which must, after a hard
(Struggle, be reversed to-morrow. The pretensions of the French Cana-
dians to the exclusive possession of Lower Canada, would debar the yet
larger English population of Upper Canada, and the Townships, from
access to the great natural channel of that trade which they alone have
created, and now carry on. The possession of the mouth of the Saint
Lawrence concerns not only those who happen to have made their settle-
ments along the narrow line which borders it. but all who now dwell, or
will hereafter dwell, in the great basin of that River. For we must not

125

look to the present alone. The question is, by what race is it likely that
the wilderness which now covers the rich and ample regions surrounding
the comparatively small and contracted Districts in which the French
Canadians are located, is eventually to be converted into a settled and
flourishing country ? If this is to be done in the British Dominions, as
in the rest of North America, by some speedier process than the ordinary
growth of population, it must be by immigration from the English Isles,
or from the United States — the countries which supply the only settlers
that have entered, or will enter the Canadas in any large numbers. —
This immigration can neither be debarred from a passage through Lower
Canada, nor even be prevented from settling in that Province. The
whole interior of the British dominions must, ere long, be lilled with an
English population, every year rapidly increasing its numerical superio-
rity over the French. Is it just that the prosperity of this great majority,
and of this vast tract of country, should be for ever, or even for a while,
impeded by the artificial bar which the backward laws and civilization of
a part, and a part only, of Lower Canada, would place between them and
the ocean ? Is it to be supposed that such an English population will
ever submit to such a sacrifice of its interests ?

I must not, however, 'assume it to be possible, that the English Government
shall adopt the course of placing or allowing any check to the influx of English
immigration into Lower Canada, or any impediment to the profitable employment
of that English capital which is already vested therein. The English have already
in their hands the majority of the larger masses of property in the country ; they
have the decided superiority of intelligence on their side; they have the certainty
that colonization must swell their numbers to a majority; and they belong to a
race which wields the Imperial Government, and predominates on the American
Continent. If we now leave them in a minority, they will never abandon the
assurance of being a majority hers after, and never cease to continue the present
contest with all the fierceness with which it now rages. In such a contest they
will rely on the sympathy of their countrymen at home ; and if that is denied them,
they feel very confident of being able to awaken the sympathy of their neighbours
of kindred origin. They feel that if the British Government intends to maintain
its hold of the Canadas, it can rely on the English population alone; that, if it
abandons its Colonial Possessions, they must bf come a portion of that great Union
which will speedily send forth its swarms of settlers, and by force of numbers and
activity, quickly master every other race. The French Canadians, on the other
hand, are but the remains of an ancient colonization, and are, and ever must be,
isolated in the midst of an Anglo-Saxon world. Whatever may happen, whatever
Government shall be established over them, British or American, the}' can see no
hope for their nationality. They can only sever themselves from the^ritish Em-
pire, by waiting till some general cause of dissatisfaction alienates them, together
with the surrounding Colonies, and leaves them part of an English confederacy ;
or, if they are able, by effecting a separation singly, and so either merging in the
American Union, or keeping up for a few years a wretched semblence of feeble
independence, which would expose them more than ever to the intrusion of the
surrounding population. I am far from wishing to encourage indiscriminately
these pretensions to superiority on the part of any particular race ; but while the
greater part of every portion of the American Continent is still uncleared and
unoccupied, and while the English exhibit such constant and marked activity in
colonization, so long will it be idle to imagine that there is any portion of that
Continent into which that race will not penetrate, or in which, wb'en it has pene-
trated, it will not predominate. It is but a question of time and mode — it is but
to determine whether the small number of French, who now inhabit Lower Ca-
nada, shall be made English under a Government which can protect them, or
whether the process shall be delayed, until a much larger number shall have to
undergo, at the rude hands of its uncontrolled rivals, the extinction of a nations
Jity strengthened and embittered by continuance.

126

And Is this French Canadian nationality one which, for the good merely of that
people, we ought to strive to perpetuate, even if it were possible? I know of no
national distinctions marking and continuing a more hopeless inferiority. The
language, the laws, the character of the North American Continent are English ,"
and every race but the English (I apply this to all who speak the English lan-
guage) appears there in a condition of inferiority. It is to elevate them from that
inferiority that J desire to give to the Canadians our English character. I desire
it for the sake of the educated classes, whom the distinction of language and
manners keeps apart fiom the great Empire to which they belong. At the best,
the fate of the educated and aspiring Colonist is, at present, one of little hope,
and little activity ; but the French Canadian is cast still further into the shade by
a language and habits foreign to those of the Imperial Government. A spirit of
exclusion has closed the higher professions on the educated classes of the French
Canadians, more perhaps than was absolutely necessary ; but it is impossible for
the utmost liberality on the part of the British Government, to give an equal posi-
tion in the general competition of its vast population to those who speak a foreign
language. I desire the amalgamation still more for the sake of the humbler classes.
Their present state of rude and equal plenty is fast deteriorating under the pres-
sure of population in the narrow limits to which they are confined. If they at-
tempt to better their condition, by extending themselves over the neighbouring
country, they will necessarily get more and more mingled with an English popu-
lation ; if they prefer remaining stationary, the greater .part of them must be la-
bourers, in the employ of English capitalists. In either case it would appear, that
the great mass of the French Canadians are doomed, in some measure, to occupy
an inferior position, and to be dependent on the English for employment The
evils of poverty and dependence would merely be aggravated in a ten-fold degree,
by a spirit of jealous and resentful nationality, which should separate the work-
ing class of the community, from the possessors of wealth and employers of
labour.

I will not here enter into the question of the effect of the mode of life and divi-
sion of property among the French Canadians on the happiness of the people. —
I will admit, for the moment, that it is as productive of well-being as its admirers
assert. But, be it good or bad, the period in which it is practicable is past ; for
there is not enough unoccupied land left in that portion of the country in which
English are not already settled, to admit of the present French population pos-
sessing farms sufficient to supply them with their present means of comfort, un-
der their system of husbandry. No population has increased by mere births so
rapidly as that of the French Canadians has since the conquest. At that period
their number was estimated at 60,000; it is now supposed to amount to more
than seven times as many There has been no proportional increase of cultiva-
tion, or of produce from the lai,d already under cultivation; and the increased
population has been in a great measure provided for by the mere continued sub-
division of estates. In a report from a committee in the Assembly in 1826, of
which M^Andrew Stuart was chairman, it is stated, that since 17S4 the popu-
lation of the seignories had quadrupled, while (he number of cattle had only dou-
bled, and the quantity of land in cultivation had only increased one-third. Com-
plaints of distress are constant, and the deterioration of the condition of a great
part of the population admitted on all hands. A people so citcumstanced must
alter their mode of life If they wish to maintain the same kind of rude, but
well-provided agricultural existence, it must be by removing into those parts of
the country in which the English are settled; or if they cling to their present
residence, they can oidy obtain a livelihood by deserting their present employ-
ment, and working for wages on farms, or in commercial occupations under
English capitalists. But their present proprietary and inactive condition is one
which no political arrangements can perpetuate. Were the French Canadians
to be guarded against the influx of any other population, their condition in a few
years would be similar to that of the poorest of the Irish peasantry.

There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can
invigorate and elevate a people, than that which is exhibited by the descendants

127

of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language
and manners. They are a people with no history, and no literature. The litera-
ture of England is written in a language which is not theirs, and the only litera-
ture which their language renders familiar to them, is that of a nation from which
they have been separated by 80 years of a foreign rule, and still more by those
changes which the revolution and its consequences have wrought in the whole
political, moral, and social state of France. Yet it is on a people whom recent
history, manners, and modes of thought, so entirely separate from them, that the
French Canadians are wholly dependent for almost all the instruction and amuse-
ment derived ft om books; it is on this essentially foreign literature, which is
conversant about events, opinions, and habits of life, perfectly strange and unin-
telligible to them, that they are compelled to be dependent. Their newspapers
are mostly written by natives of France, who have either come to try their for-
tunes in the Province, or been brought into it by the party leaders, in order to
supply the dearth of literary talent available for the political press. In the same
way their nationality operates to deprive them of the enjoyments and civilizing
influence of the arts. Though descended from the people in the world that most
generally love, and have most successfully cultivated, the drama; though living
on a continent in which almost every town, great or small, has an English theatre,
the French population of Lower Canada, cut off from every people that speaks
its own language, can support no national stage.

In these circumstances I should be indeed surprised, if the more reflecting partof
the French Canadians entertained at present any hope of continuing to preserve
their nationality. Much as they struggle against it, it is obvious that the process
of assimilation to English habits is already commencing. The English language
is gaining ground, as the language of the rich and of the employers of labour
naturally will It appeared by some of the ffw returns which had been received
by the commissioner of inquiry into the state of education, that there are about
ten times the number of French children in Quebec learning English, as compared
with the English childreti who learn Fiench. A considerable time must, of
course elapse, before the change of a language can spread over a whole people;
and justice and policy alike requite that while the people continue to use the
French language their Government should take no such means ro force the Eng-
lish language upon them as would, in fact, deprive the great mass of the commu-
nity of the protection of the laws. But I repeat, that the alteration of the charac-
ter of the Province ought to be immediately entered on, and firmly, though cau-
tiously, followed up; that in any plan which may be adopted for the future man-
agement of Lower Canada, the first object ought to be that of -making it an Eng-
lish Province; and that, with this end in view, the ascendancy should never again
be placed in any hands but those of an English population. Indeed, at the pie-
sent moment this is obviously necessary ; in the state of mind in which I have
described the French Canadian population, as not only now being, but as likely
for a long while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control over this
Province would be, in fact, only facilitating a rebellion. Lower Canada must be
governed now, as it must be hereafter, by an English population ; and thus the
policy which the necessities of the moment force on us is in accordance with that
suggested by a comprehensive view of the future and permanent improvement of
the Province.

The greater part of the plans which have been proposed for the future govern-
ment of Lower Canada suggest, either as a lasting or as a temporary and interme-
diate scheme, that the government .of that province should be constituted on an
entirely despotic footing, or on one that would vest it entirely in the hands of
the British minority. It is proposed either to place the Legislative authority in
a Governor, with a council formed of the heads of the British party, or to con-
trive some scheme of representation, by which a minority, with the forms of re-
presentation, is to deprive a majority of all voice in the management of its own
affairs.

The maintenance of an absolute form of government on any part of the North
American continent can never continue for any long time, without exciting a ge-

128

neral feeling in the United Stales against a power of which the existence is se-
cured by means so odious to the people ; and as I rate the preservation of the
present general sympathy of the United States with the policy of our Government
iu Lower Canada as a matter of the greatest importance, I should be sorry that
the feeling should be changed for one which, if prevalent among that people, must
extend over the surrounding provinces. The influence of such an opinion would
not only act very strongly on the entire French population, and keep up among
them a sense of injury and a determination of resistance to the Government, but
would lead to just as great discontent among the English. In their present angry
state of feeling, they might tolerate, for a while, any arrangement that would
give them a triumph over the French ; but I have greatly misunderstood their cha-
racter ifthey would long bear a government in which they had no direct voice.
Nor would their jealousy be obviated by the selection of a council frorn the per-
sons supposed to have their confidence. It is not easy to know who really pos-
sess that confidence: and I suspect that there would be no surer way of depriving
a man of influence over them, than by treating him as their representative, with-
out their consent.

The experience which we have had of a government irresponsible to the people
in these colonies, does not justify us in believing that it would be very well ad-
ministered ; and the great reforms iu the institutions of the province which must
be made, ere Lower Canada, can ever be a well-ordered and flourishing commu-
nity, can be effected by no Legislature which does not represent a great mass of
public opinion.

But the great objection to any Government of an absolute kind is, that it is
palpably of a temporary nature ; that there is no reason to believe that its influ-
ence, during the few years that it would be permitted to last, would leave the peo-
ple at all more fit to manage themselves; that, on the contrary, being a mere
temporary institution, it would be deficient in that stability which is the greatest
requisite of government in times of disorder. There is every reason to believe
that a professedly irresponsible government would be the weakest that could be
devised. Every one of its acts would be discussed, not in the colony, but in
England, on utterly incomplete and incorrect information, and run the chance of
being disallowed without being understood. The most violent outcry that could
be raised by persons looking at them through the medium of English and consti-
tutional notions, or by those who might hope thereby to promote the sinister pur-
poses of faction at home, would be constantly directed against them. Such con-
sequences as these are inevitable. The people of England are not accustomed
to rely on the honest and discreet exercise of absolute powar ; and if they per-
mit a despotism to be established in their colonies, they feel bound, when their
attention happens to be directed towards them, to watch its acts with vigilance.
The governor and council would feel this responsibility in all their acts ; unless
they happened to be men of much more than ordinary nerve and earnestness,
they would shape their policy so as merely to avoid giving a handle to attacks;
ami their measures would exhibit all that uncertainty and weakness which such
a motive is sure to produce.

With respect to every one of those plans which propose to make the Euglish
minority an electoral majority by means of new and strange modes of voting or
unfair divisions of the country, 1 shall only say that if the Canadians are to be
deprived of a representative government, it would be better to do it in a straight-
forward way than to attempt to establish a permanent system of government, on
the basis of what all mankind would regard as mere electoral frauds. It is not in
North America that men can be cheated by an unreal semblance of representa-
tive government, or persuaded that they are outvoted, when, in fact, they are
disfranchised.

The only power that can be effectual at once in coercing the present disaffec-
tion, and hereafter obliterating the nationality of the French Canadians, is that
of a numerical majority ot'a loyal and English population; and the only stable
government will be one more popular than any that has hitherto existed in the
North American Colonics. The influence of perfectly equal and popular insti-

129

tutionsin effacing distinctions of race without disorder or oppression, and with
little more than the ordinary animosities of parly in a free country, is memora-
bly exemplified in the history of the state of Louisiana, the laws and population
of which were French at the time of its cession to the American Union. And the
eminent success of the policy adopted with regard to thatsta'e, points out to us
the means by which a similar result cau be effected in Lower Canada.

The English of Lower Canada, who seem to infer the means from the result,
entertain and circulate the most extraordinary conceptions of the course really
pursued in this instance. On the single fact that in the constitution of Louisiana
it is specified, that the public acts of the state snail be " in the language in which
the constitution of the United Slates is written," it has been inferred that the fede-
ral government, in the most violent manner, swept awiiy the use of the French
language and laws, and subjected the French population to some peculiar disabi-
lities, which deprived them, in fact, of an equal voice in the government of their
state. Nothing can be more contrary to the fact. Louisiana, on its first cessionj
was governed as a " district " ; its public officers were appointed by the federal
government, and, as was natural under the circumstances of the case, they were
natives of the old states of the union In 1812 the district, having the requisite
population, was admitted into the union as a state, and admitted on precisely the
same terms that any other population have, or has been. The constitution was
framed so as to give precisely the same power to the. majority as is enjoyed in
the other states of the union. No alteration was then made in the laws. The
proof of this is afforded by a fact familiar to every person moderately acquainted
with the jurisprudence of the age. The code, which is the glory of Louisiana, and
Mr. Livingstone, was subequently undertaken under the auspices of the Legisla-
ture, in consequence of the confusion daily arising in the administration of the
English and French system of law in the same courts. This change of laws,
effected in the manner most consonant to the largest views of legislation, was not
forced on the Legislature and people of the state by an external authority, but
was the suggestion of their own political wisdom. Louisiana is not the only state
in the union which has been troubled by the existence of conflicfing systems of
law. The state of New York, till within a few years, suffered under the same
evil, which it remedied in the same way, by employing a commission of it*
ablest lawyers to digest both systems of law into a common code. The contend-
ing populations of Lower Canada may well imitate these examples : and if, instead
of endeavouring to force their respective laws upon each other, they would at-
tempt an amalgamation of the two systems info one, adopting what is really best
in both, the result would be creditable to the Province.

Every provision was made in Louisiana for securing to both races a perfectly equal
participation in all the benefits of the Government. It is true that the intention
of the federal Government to encourage the use of the English language, was
evinced by the provision of the constitution with respect to the language of the
records ; but those who will reflect how very few people ever read such docu«
ments, and how very recently it is that the English language has become the
language of the law in this country, will see that such a provision could have
little practical effect. In all cases in which convenience requires if, the different
parties use their respective languages in the courts of justice, and in both branches
of the Legislature In every judicial proceeding, all documents which pass be-
tween the parties are required to be in both languages, and the laws are published
in botn languages. Indeed, the equality of the two languages is preserved in
the Legislature by a very singular contrivance; the French and English mem-
bers speak their respective languages, and an interpreter, as I was informed,
after every speech, explains its purport in the other language.

For a long time the distinction between the two races was the cause of gre&t
jealousy. The Americans crowded into the state in order to avail themselves of
its great natural resources, and its unequalled commercial advantages; there, as
everywhere else on that continent, their energy and habits of business gnidually
drew the greater part of the commercial busings of the countrv into their hands;

R

130

and though, I believe, a few of the richest merchants, and most of the owners of
plantations, are French, the English form the bulk of the wealthier classes. —
Year after year their numbers have become greater, and it is now generally sup-
posed that they constitute the numerical majority. It may be imagined that the
French have borne this with a good deal of dissatisfaction ; but as the advantages
gained by the English were entirely the result, not of favour, but of their superi-
ority in a perfectly free competition, this jealousy could excite no murmurs
against the Government. The competition made the two races enemies at first,
but it has gradttaily stirred the emulation of the less active race, and made them
rivals. The jealousies in the city of New Orleans were so great at one time, that
the Legislature of the state, at the desire of the English, who complained of the
inertness of the French, formed separate municipalities for the French and Eng-
lish parts of the city. These two municipalities are now actuated by a spirit of
rivalry, and each undertakes great public works for the ornament and conve-
nience of their respective quarters.

The distinction still lasts, and still causes a good deal of division ; the society of
each race is said to be in ?ome measure distinct, but not by any means hostile —
and some accounts represent the social mixture to be very great. All accounts
represent the division of the races as becoming gradually less and less marked ;
their newspapers are printed in the two languages, on opposite pages; their local
politics are entirely merged, in those of the Union; and instead of discovering in
their papers any vestiges of a quarrel of races, they are found to contain a repe-
tition of the same party recriminations, and party arguments, which abound in
all other parts of the federation.

The explanation of this amalgamation is obvious. The French of Louisiana,,
when they were formed into a State, in which they were a majority, were incor-
porated into a great nation, of which they constituted an extremely small part —
The eye of every ambitious man turned naturally to the great centre of federal
affairs, and the high prizes of federal ambition. The ton*1 of politics was taken
from those by whose hands its highest powers were wielded; the Legislation and
Government of Louisiana were from the first insignificant, compared with the
interests involved in the discussions at Washington. It became the object of
every aspiring man to merge his French, and adopt completely an American na-
tionality. What was the interest of individuals, was also the interest of the State.
It was its policy to be represented by those who would acquire weight in the
councils of the federation. To speak only a language foreign to that of the Uni-
ted States was, consequently, a disqualification for a candidate for the posts of
either Senator or Representative; the French qualified themselves by learning
English, or submitted to the superior advantages of their English competitors. —
The representation of Louisiana, in Congress, is now entirely English, while each
of the federal parties in the State conciliates the French feeling, by putting up a
candidate of that race- But the result is, that the Union is never disturbed by ihe
quarrels of these races; and the French language and manners bid fair, in no long
time, to follow their laws, and pass away like the Dutch peculiarities of New
York.

It is only by the same- means—by a Dopular Government, in which an English
majority shall permanently predominate, that Lower Canada, if a remedy for its
disorders be not too long delayed, can be tranquilly ruled.

On those grounds. I believe that no permanent or efficient remedy can be devised
for the disorders of Lower Canada, except a fusion of the Government in that of
one or more of the surrounding Provinces; and aslam of opinion, that the full
establishment of responsible Government can only be permanently secured by
giving these Colonies an increased importance in the po!itic« of the Empire, I find
in union the only means of remedying at once, and completely, the two prominent
causes of their present unsatisfactory condition.

Two kinds of union have been proposed— federal and legislative. By the first.
the separate. legislature of each Province would be preserved in its present form,
and retain almost all .its present attributes of internal legislation — the federal
legislature exercising no power, save in those matters of general concern which

131

may have been expressly ceded to it by the constituent Provinces. A legislative
union would imply a complete incorporation of the Provinces included in it under
one legislature, exercising universal and sole legislative authority over all of them,
inexactly the same manner as the Parliament legislates alone for the whole of the
•British Isles.

On my first arrival in Canada, I was strongly inclined to the project of a federal
union : and it was with such a plan in view, that I discussed a general measure for
the Government from the Colonies with the deputations of the Lower Provinces,
and with various leading individuals and public bodies in both the Canadas. I was
fully aware, that it might be objected that a federal union would, in many cases,
produce a weak and rather cumbrous Government; that a Colonial federation
must have, in fact, little legitimate authority or business, the greater part of the
ordinary functions of a federation falling within the scope of the Imperial Legisla-
ture and Executive; and that the main inducement to federation, which is the ne-
cessity of conciliating the pretensions of independent states to the maintenance of
their own sovereignty, could not exist in the case of Colonial dependencies, liable
to be moulded according to the pleasure of the supreme authority at home. In the
course of the discussions which I have mentioned, I became aware also of great
practical difficulties in any plan of federal Government, particularly those that
must arise in the management of the general revenues, which would, in such a
plan, have to be again distributed among the Provinces. But I had stilt more
strongly impressed on me the great advantages of a united Government; and
I was gratified by finding the leading minds of the various Colonies strongly
and generally inclined to a scheme, that would elevate their countries into some-
thing like a national existence I thought that it would be the tendency of a
federation) sanctioned and consolidated by a Monarchical Government, gradually
to become a complete legislative union; and that thus, while conciliating the
French of Lower Canada, by leaving them the Government of their own Province,
and their own internal legislation, I might provide for the protection of British
interests by the general Government, and for the gradual transition of the Pro-
vinces into an united and homogeneous community.

But the period of gradual transition is past in Lower Canada. In the present
state of feeling among the French population, I cannot doubt that any power
which they might possess would be used against the policy and the very existence
of any form -of British Government. I cannot doubt that any French Assembly
that shall again meet in Lower Canada, will use whatever power, be it more or
less limited it may have, to obstruct the Government, and undo whatever has been
done by it. Time, and the honest co operation of the various parties, would be
required to aid the action of a federal Consritution ; and time is not allowed, in
the present state of Lower Canada, nor co-operation to be expected from a legisla-
ture of which the majority shall represent its French inhabitants. I believe that
tranquillity can only be restored, by subjecting the Province to the vigorous rule
of an English majority ; and that the only efficacious Government would be that
formed by a legislative union.

If the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated at 400,000, the English
inhabitants of Lower Canada at 150,000 and the French at 450,000, the union of
the two provinces would not only give a clear English majority,' but one which
would be increased every year by the influence of English emigration ; and I
have little doubt that the French, when once placed, by the legitimate course of
events and the working of natural causes, in a minority, would abandon their
vain hopes of nationality. I do not mean that they would immediately give up
their present animosities, or instantly renounce the hope of attaining their end
by violent means. But the experience of the two Unions in the British Isles may
teach us how effectually the strong arm of a popular legislature would compel
the obedience of the refractory population ; and the hopelessness of success
would gradually subdue the existing animosities, and incline the French Canadi-
an population to acquiesce in their new state of political existence. I certainly
should not like to subject the French Canadians to the rule of the identical Eng-
lish minority with which they have so long been contending; but from a majori

132

ty emanating from so much more extended a source, I do not think, they would
have any oppression or injustice to fear ; and in this case the far greater part of
the majority never having been brought into previous collision, would regard
them with no animosity that could warp their natural sense of equity. The en-
dowments of the Catholic Church in Lower Canada, and the existence of all its
present laws, until altered by the united Legislature, might be secured by stipu-
lations similar to those adopted in the union between England and Scotland. I
do not think that the subsequent history of British Legislation need incline us to
believe, that the nation which has a majority in a popular legislature is likely to
use its power to tamper very hastily with the laws of the people to which it is uni-
ted.

The union of the two provinces would secure to Upper Canada the present
great objects of its desire. All disputes as to the division or amount of the rev-
enue would cease. The surplus revenue of Lower Canada would supply the de-
ficiency of that part of the Upper Province : and the Province thus placed be-
yond the possibility of locally jobbing the surplus revenue, which it cannot re-
duce, would, I think, gain as much by the arrangement as the Province, which
would thus find a means of paying the interest of its debt. Indeed, it would be
by no means unjust to place this burden on Lower Canada, inasmuch as the
great public works for which the debt was contracted are as much the concern
of one province as of the other. Nor is it to be supposed that, whatever may
have been the mismanagement in which a great part of the debt originated, the
canals of Upper Canada will always be a source of loss instead of profit. The
completion of the projected and necessary line of public works would be promoted
by such an union. 1 he access to the sea would be secured to Upper Canada.
The saving of public money, which would be insured by the Union of various es-
tablishments in the two Provinces, would supply the means of conducting the
general government on a more eScient scale than it has yet been carried on ; and
the responsibility of the Executive would be secured by the inreased weight
which the representative body of the united province would bring to bear on the
Imperial Government and Legislature.

But while 1 convince myself that such desirable ends would be secured by the
Legislative Union of the two Provinces, I am inclined to go further, and inquire
whether all these objects would not more surely be attained by extending this
legislative union over all the British provinces in North America; and whether
the advantages which I anticipate for two of them, might not, and should not in
justice, be extended over all. Such an union would at once decisively settle the
question of races ; it would enable all the Provinces to co-oporate for all common
purposes; and, above all, it would form a great and powerful people, possessing
the means of securing good and responsible government for itself, and which,
under the protection of the British empire, might' in some measure counterbal-
ance the preponderant and increasing influence of the United States on the
American continent. I do not anticipate that a colonial legislature thus strong
and thus self-governing would desire to abandon the connexion with Great Bri-
tain. On the contrary, I believe that the practical relief fromu ndue interference
which would be the result of such a change, would strengthen the present bond
of feelings and interests; and that the connexion would only beeome more dura-
ble and advantageous, by having more of equality, of freedom, and of local in-
dependence. But, at any rate, our first duty is to secure the well-being of our
colonial countrymen ; and if in the hidden decrees of that wisdom by which this
world is ruled, it is written, that these countries are for ever to remain portions
of the empire, we owe it to our honour to take good care that when they separate
from us, they should not be the only countries on the American continent in-which
the Anglo-Saxon race shall be found unfit to govern itself.

I am, in truth, so far from believing that the increased power and weight that
would be given to these colonies by union would endanger their conuexion with
the empire, that I look to it as the only means of fostering such a national feel-
ing throughout them as would effectually counterbalance whatever tendencies
may now exist towards separatioti. No large community of free and intelligent

133

men will long feel contented with a political system which places them, because it
places their country, in a position of inferiority to their neighbours. The colo*
nistof Great Britain is linked, it is true, to a mighty empire, and the glories of
its history, thevisible signs of its present power, and the civilization of iis people,
are calculated to raise and gratify his national pride. But he feels, also, that
bis link <o- that empire is one of remote dependence ; he catches but passing
and inadequate glimpses of its power and prosperity; lie knows that in its Go-
vernment he and his own countrymen have no voice. While his neighbour on
the other side of the frontier assumes importance, from the notion that his vote
exercises some influence on the councils, and that be himself has some share
in the onward progre>s of a mighty nation, the colonist feels the deadening influ-
ence of the narrow and subordinate community to whicti he belongs. In his
own, and in the surrounding colonies, he finds petty objects occupying petty,
stationary, and divided societies ; and it is only when the chances of an uncer-
tain and tardy communication bring intelligence of what has passed a month
before on the other side of the Atlantic, that he is reminded of the empire with
which he is connected. But the influence of the United States surrounds him on
every side, and is forever present It extends itself as population augments and
intercourse increases; it penetrates every portion of the continent into which
the restless spit it of American speculation impels the settler or the trader ; it is
felt in all the transactions of commerce, from the important operations of the
monetary system down to the minor details of ordinary traffic ; it stamps on all
the habits and opinions of the surrounding countries the common characteristics
of the thoughts, feelings and customs of the American people. Such is necessa-
rily the influence which a great nation exercises on the small communities which
surround it. Its thoughts and manners subjugate them, even when nominally in-
dependent of its authority. If we wish to prevent the extension of this influence,
it can only be done by raising up for the North American Colonist some national-
ity of his own, by elevating these small and unimportant communities into a so-
ciety having some objects of' a national importance, and by thus giving their in-
habitants a country, which they will be unwilling to see absorbed even into one
more powerful.

While I believe that the establishment of a comprehensive system of Govern-
ment, and of an effectual union between the different Provinces, would produce
this important effect on the general feelings of their inhabitants, I am inclined to
attach very great importance to the influence which it would have in giving great-
er scope and satisfaction to the legitimate ambition of the most active and pro-
minent persons to be found in them. As long as personal ambition is inherent in
human nature, and as long as the morality of every free and civilized community
encourages its aspirations, it is one gr^at business of a wise government to pro-
vide for its legitimate development. If, as it is commonly asserted, the disorders
of these colonies have, in great measure, been fomented by the influence of de-
signing and ambitious individuals, this evil will best be remedied by allowing such
a scope for the desires of such men as shall direct their ambition into the legiti-
mate chance of furthering, and not of thwarting, their Government. By creating
high prizes in a general and responsible Government, we shall immediately af-
ford the means of pacifying the turbulent ambitions, and of employing in worthy
and noble occupations, the talents which now are only exerted to foment disorder.
We must remove from these colonies the cause to which the sagacity of Adam
Smith traced the alienation of the Provinces which now form the United States:
we must provide some scope for what he calls ' the importance of the leading
men of the colony,' beyond what he forcibly terms the present ' petty prizes of
the paltry raffle of colonial fiction.' A general legislative union would elevate
and gratify the hopes of able and aspiring men. They would no longer look
with envy and wonder at the great arena of the bordering federation, but see the
means of satisfying every legitimate ambition in the high offices of the judicature
and executive government of their own union

Nor would an union of the various provinces be less advantageous in facilitat-
ing a co-operation for various common purposes, of which the want is now very

134

seriously felt. There is hardly a department of the business of governmen t which
does not require, or would not be better performed, by being- carried on under
the superintendence of a general government ; and when we consider the politi-
cal and commercial interests that are common to these provinces, it appears
difficult to account for their having ever been divided into separate governments,
since they have all been portions of the same empire, subject to the same Crown,
governed by the same laws and constitutional customs, inhabited, with one excep-
tion, by the same race, contiguous and immediately adjacent to each other, and
bounded along their whole frontier by the territories of the same powerful and rival
state. It would appear that every motive that has induced the union of various pro-
\inces into a single state, exists for the consolidation of these colonies under a com-
mon legislature and executive. They have the same common relation to the mother
country ; the same relation to foreign nations. When one is at war, the others are
at war; and the hostilities that are caused by an attack on one, must seriously
compromise the welfare of the rest. Thus the disputes between Great Britain and
the state of Maine appears immediately to involve the interests of none of these
colonies, except New Brunswick or Lower Canada, to one of which the territory
claimed by us must belong. But if a war were to commence on this ground, it is
most probable that the American government would select Upper Canada as the
most vulnerable, or, at any rate, as the easiest point of attack. A dispute respect-
ing the fisheries of Nova Scotia, would involve precisely the same consequences.
An union for common defence against foreign enemies is the natural bond of
connexion that holds together the great communities of the world ; and between
no parts of any kingom or state is the necessity for such an union more obvious,
than between the whole of these colonies.

Their internal relations furnish quite as strong motives for union. The Post-
office is at the present moment under the management of the same imperial estab-
lishment. If, in compliance with the rea-oiiable demands of the colonies, the re-
gulation of a matter so entirely of internal concern, and the revenue derived from
it, were placed under the control of the provincial legislatures, it would still be
advisable that the management of the Post-office throughout the whole of British
North America should be conducted by one general establishment. In the same
way, so great is the influence on the other provinces of the arrangements adopted
with respect to the disposal of public lands and colonization in any one, that it
is absolutely essential that this department of government should be conducted on
one system, and by one authority. The necessity of common fiscal regulations i«
strongly felt by all the colonies; and a common custom-house establishment would
relieve them from the hindrances to their trade caused by the duties now levied
on all commercial intercourse between them. The monetary and banking system
of all is subject to the same influences, and ought to be regulated by the same laws.
The establishment of a common colonial currency is very generally desired.
Indeed, I know of no department of Government that would not greatly gain,
both in economy and efficiency, by being placed under a common management.
I should not propose, at first, to alter the existing public establishments of the
different Provinces, because the necessary changes had better be left to be made
by the united Government; and the judicial establishments should certainly not
be disturbed until the future legislature shall provide for their re-construction on
an uniform and permanent footing. But even in the administration of justice, an
union would immediately supply a remedy for one of the most serious wants un-
der which all the provinces labour, by facilitating the formation of a general ap-
pellate tribunal for all the North American Colonies.

But the interests which are already in common between all these Provinces are
small in comparison with those which the consequences of such an union might,
and I think I may say assuredly would, call into existence ; and the great discov-
eries of modern art, which have throughout the world, and nowhere more than in
America, entirely altered the character and the channels of communication be-
tween distant countries, wdl bring all the North American Colonies into constant
and speedy intercourse with each other. The success of the great experiment of
steam navigation across the Atlantic, opens a prospect of a speedy communica-

135

tion with Europe, which will materially affect the future state of all these Pro-
vinces. In a despatch which arrived in Canada after my departure, the Secreta-
ry of State informed me of the determination of Your Majesty's Government to
establish a steam communication between Great Britain and Halifax, and in-
structed me to turn my attention to the formation of a road between that port and
Quebec. It would, indeed, have given me sincere satisfaction, had I remained in
the Province, to promote, by any means in my power, so highly desirable an ob-
ject ; and the removal of the usual restrictions on my authority as Governor-Ge-
neral having given me the means of effectually acting in concert with the various
provincial Governments, I might have been able to* make some progress in the
work. But I cannot point out. more strikingly the evils of the present want of a
general government for these Provinces, than by adverting to the difficulty which
would practically occur, under the previous and present arrangements of both
executive and legislative authorities in the various provinces, in attempting- to
carry such a plan into effect. For the various colonies have no more means of
concerting such commrn works with each other, than with the neighbouring states
of the Union. They stand to one another in the position of foreign states, and
of foreign states without diplomatic relations. The governors may correspond
with each other: the legislatures may enact laws, carrying the common purposes
into effect in their respective jurisdictions ; but there is no means by which the
various details may speedily and satisfactorily be settled with the concurrence of
the different parties. And, in this instance, it must be recollected that the com-
munication and the final settlement would have to be made between, not two,
but several of the Provinces. The road would run through three of them; and
Upper Canada, into which it would not enter, would in fact, be more interested
in the completion of such a work than any even of the Provinces through which
it would pass. The colonies indeed, have no common centre in which the ar-
rangement could be made, except in the Colonial-office at home; and the details
of such a plan would have to be discussed, just where the interests of all parties
would have the least means of being fairly and fully represented, and where the
minute local knowledge necessary for such a matter would be least likely to be
found.

The completion of any satisfactory communication between Halifax and Que-
bec would, in fact, produce relations between these Provinces that would render
a general union absolutely necessary. Several surveys have proved that a raiJ-
road would be perfectly practicable the whole way. Indeed, in North America
the expense and difficulty of making a railroad bears by no means the excessive
proportion to those of a common road that it does in Europe. It appears to be
a general opinion in the United States, that the severe snows and frosts of that
continent very slightly impede, and do not prevent, the travelling on railroads;
and, if I am rightly informed, the Utica railroad, in the northern part of the state
of New York, is used throughout the winter. If this opinion be correct, the for-
mation of a railroad from Halifax to Quebec would entirely alter some of the
distinguishing characteristics of the Canadas. Instead of being shut out from
all direct intercourse with England during half the year, they would possess a
far more certain and speedy communication throughout the winter than they
now possess in summer. The passage from Ireland to Quebec would be a matter
of 10 or 12 days, and Halifax would be the great port by which a large portion
of the trade, and all the conveyance of passengers to the whole of British North
America, would be carried on. But, even supposing these brilliant prospects to
be such as we could not reckon on seeing realized, I may assume that it is not
intended to make this road without a well-founded belief that it will become an
important channel of communication between the Upper and Lower Provinces.
In either case, would not the maintenance of «uch a road, and the mode in which
the government is administered in the different Provinces, be matters of common
interest to all ? If the great natural channel of the St. Lawrence gives all the
people who dwell in any part of its basin such an interest in the government of
the whole as renders it wise to incorporate the two Canadas, the artificial work
which would, in fact, supersede the lower part of the St. Lawrence, as the.outlet

136

of a great part of the Canadian trade, and would make Halifax, in a great mea.
sure an outport, to Quebec, would surely in the same way render it advisable that
the incorporation should be extended to provinces through which such a road
would pass.

With respect to the two smaller colonies of Prince Edward's Island and New-
foundland, I am of opinion, that not only would most of the reasons which I have
given for an union of the others apply to them, but thattheir small'ness makes it
absolutely necessary, as the only means of securing any proper attention to their
interests, and investing them with that consideration, the deficiency of which they
have so much reason to lament, in all the dispute? which yearly occur between
them and the citizens of the United States, with regard to the encroachments made
by the latter on their coasts and fisheries.

The views on which 1 found my support of a comprehensive union have long
been entertained by many persons in these colonies whose opinion is entitled to the
highest consideration. I cannot, however, refrain from mentioning the sanction
of such views by onl whose authority your Majesty will, I may venture to say,
receive with the utmost respect. Mr. Sewell, the late Chief Justice of Quebec,
laid before me an autograph letter addressed to himself by your Majesty's illus-
trious and lamented father, in which his Royal Highness was pleased to express his
approbation of a similar plan then proposed by that gentleman. No one better
understoood the interests and character of these colonies than hts Royal Highness ;
and it is with peculiar satisfaction, therefore, that I submit to your Majesty's peru-
sal the important documentwhich contains his Royal Highness's opinion in favour
of such a scheme : —

"Kensington Palace, Nov. 30, 1814.

" My dear Sewe'.l, — I have this day had the pleasure of receiving your note of
yesterday, with its interesting enclosure ; nothing can be better arranged than the
whole thing is, or more perfectly I cannot wish ; and when I see an opening, it
is fully my intention to hint the matter to Lord Bathurst, and put the paper into
his hands, without, however, telling him from whom 1 have it, though 1 shall urge
him to have some conversation with you relative to it. Permit me, however, just
to ask you whether it was not an oversight in you to state that there are five
Houses of Assembly in the British Colonies in North America? for if I am not
under an error, there are six, viz. Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and
New Brunswick, the islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton. Allow me also to
beg of you to put down the proportions in which you think the 30 members of the
representative assembly ought to be furnished by each province; and finally to
suggest whether you would not think two Lieutenant-Governors, with two Execu-
tive Councils, sufficient for the executive government of the whole — viz one for
the two Canadas, and one for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, comprehending
the small dependencies of Cape Breton and Prince Edward's Island; the former
to reside at Montreal, and the latter at whichever of the two situations may be
considered most central for the two Provinces, whether Anapolis, Royf.1 or Wind-
sor. But, at all events, should you even consider four Executive Government*
and four Executive Councils requisite, I presume there cannot be a question of
the expediency of comprehending the two small islands in the Gulf of St. Law-
rence with Nova Scotia.

" Believe me ever to remain, with the most friendly regard,
" My dear Sewell, yours faithfully,

" EDWARD."

I know of but one difficulty in the way of such an union, and that arises
from the disinclination which some of the Lower Provinces might feel to
the transference of powers from their present Legislatures to that of the
Union. The objection to this would arise principally, I imagine, from
their not liking to give up the immediate control which they now hav«
over the funds by which their local expenditure is defrayed. I have given
such a view of the evils of this system that I cannot be expected to admit

137

that an interference with it would be an objection to my plan. I think,
however, that the Provinces would have a right to complain, if these pow-
ers of local management, and of distributing funds for local purposes
were taken from the Provincial Assemblies only to be placed in the
yet more objectionable hands of a general legislature. Every precau-
tion should, in my opinion, be taken to prevent such a power, by
any possibility, falling into the hands of the Legislature of the
union. In order to prevent that, I would prefer that the Provincial As-
semblies should be retained with merely municipal powers. But it would
be far better, in point both of efficiency and of economy, that this power
should be intrusted to the municipal bodies of much smaller districts ; and
the formation of such bodies would, in my opinion, be an essential part
of any durable and complete union.

With such views, I should, without hesitation, recommend the imme-
diate adoption of a general legislative union of all the British Provinces
in North America, if the regular course of government were suspended
or perilled in the Lower Provinces, and the necessity of the immediate
adoption of a plan for their government, without reference to them, a
matter of urgency, or if it were possible to delay the adoption of a mea-
sure with respect to the Canadas until the project of an union could have
been referred to the Legislatures of the Lower Provinces. But the state
of the Lower Province, though it justifies the proposal of an union, would
not, I think, render it gracious, or even just, on the part of Parliament to
carry it into effect without referring it for the ample deliberation and con-
sent of the people of those colonies. Moreover, the state of the two Ca-
nadas is such that neither the feelings of the parties concerned, nor the
interests of the Crown or the colonies themselves, will admit of a single
session, nor even of a large portion of a session of Parliament being al-
lowed to pass, without a definite decision by the Imperial Legislature as
to the basis on which it purposes to found the future government of those
colonies.

In existing circumstances, the conclusions to which the foregoing con-
siderations lead me is, that no time should be lost in proposing to Parlia-
ment a bill for repealing the 31st of George III., restoring the union of
the Canadas under one Legislature, and reconstituting them as one Pro-
vince.

The bill should contain provisions by which any or all of the other
North American colonies may, on the application of the Legislature, be,
with the consent of the two Canadas, or their united Legislature, admitted
into the union on such terms as may be agreed on between them.

As the mere amalgamation of the Houses of Assembly of the twoJPro-
vinces would not be advisable, or give at all a due share of representation
to each, a Parliamentary commission should be appointed, for the pur-
pose of forming the electoral divisions, and determining the number of
members to be returned on the principle of giving representation, as near
as may be, in proportion to population. I am averse to every plan that
has been proposed for giving an equal number of members to the two
Provinces, in order to attain the temporary end of outnumbering the
French, because I think the same object will be obtained without any
violation of the principles of representation, and without any such appear-
ance of injustice in the scheme as would set public opinion, both in Eng-
land and America, strongly against it ; and because, when emigration
S

138

shall have increased the English population in the Upper Province, the
adoption of such a principle would operate to defeat the very purpose it
is intended to serve. It appears to me that any such electoral arrange-
ment, founded on the present Provincial divisions, would tend to defeat
the purposes of union, and perpetuate the idea of disunion.

At the same time, in order to prevent the confusion and danger likely
to ensue from attempting to have popular elections in Districts recently
the seats of open rebellion, it will be advisable to give the Governor a
temporary power of suspending by Proclamation, stating specifically the
grounds of his determination, the writs of Electoral Districts, in which
he may be of opinion that elections could not safely take place.

The same commission should form a plan of local Government, by
elective bodies, subordinate to the general Legislature, and exercising a
complete control over such local affairs as do not come within the pro-
vince of general legislation. The plan so framed should be made an Act
of the Imperial Parliament, so as to prevent the general Legislature from
encroaching on the powers of the local bodies.

A general Executive, on an improved principle, should be established,
together with a supreme Court of Appeal, for all .the North American
Colonies. The other establishments and laws of the two Colonies should
be left unaltered, until the Legislature of the Union should think fit to
change them ; and the security of the existing endowments of the Catholic
Church in Lower Canada should be guaranteed by the Act.

The constitution of a second legislative body for the united Legislature,
involves questions of very great difficulty. The present constitution of
the Legislative Councils of these Provinces, has always appeared to me
inconsistent with sound principles, and little calculated to answer the
purpose of placing the effective check, which I consider necessary, on
the popular branch of the Legislature. The analogy which some per-
sons have attempted to draw between the House of Lords and the Legis-
lative Councils, seems to me erroneous. The constitution of the House
of Lords is consonant with the frame of English society ; and as the crea-
tion of a precisely similar body in such a state of society as that of these
Colonies is impossible, it has always appeared to me most unwise to
attempt to supply its place by one which has no point of resemblance to
it, except that of being a non-elective check on the elective branch of the
Legislature. The attempt to invest a few persons, distinguished from
their fellow-colonists neither by birth nor hereditary property, and often
only transiently connected with the country, with such a power, seems
only calculated to ensure jealousy and bad feeling in the first instance,
and collision at last. I believe that when the necessity of relying, in
Lower Canada, on the English character of the Legislative Council, as
a check on the national prejudices of a French Assembly, shall be re-
moved by the union, few persons in the Colonies will be found disposed
in favour of its present constitution. Indeed, the very fact of union will
complicate the difficulties which have hitherto existed : because a satis-
factory choice of Councillors would have to be made with reference to
the varied interests of a much more numerous and extended community.

It will be necessary, therefore, for the completion of any stable scheme
of Government, that Parliament should revise the constitution of the Le-
gislative Council, and by adopting every practical means to give that
institution such a character as would enable it, by its tranquil and safe,
but effective working, to act as an useful check on the popular branch of

139

ihe Legislature, prevent a repetition of those collisions which have already
caused such dangerous irritation.

The plan which I have framed for the management of the public lands
being intended to promote the common advantage of the Colonies, and
of the Mother Country, I therefore propose that the entire administration
of it should be confided to an Imperial authority. The conclusive rea-
sons which have induced me to recommend this course, will be found
at length in the separate report on the subject of public lands and
emigration.

All the revenues of the Crown, except those derived from this source,
should at once be given up to the United Legislature, on the concession
of an adequate Civil List.

The responsibility to the United Legislature of all Officers of the Gov-
ernment, except the Governor and his Secretary, should be secured by
every means known to the British Constitution. The Governor, as the
representative of the Crown, should be instructed that he must carry on
his Government by Heads of Departments, in whom the United Legisla-
ture shall repose confidence; and that he must look for no support from
home in any contest with the Legislature, except on points involving
strictly Imperial interests.

The independence of the Judges should be secured, by giving them the
same tenure of office, and security of income, as exist in England.

No money votes should be allowed to originate, without the previous
consent of the Crown.

In the same Act should be contained a repeal of past provisions., with
respect to the Clergy Reserves, and the application of the funds arising
frem them.

In order to promote emigration on the greatest possible scale, and with
the most beneficial results to all concerned, I have elsewhere recommen-
ded a system of measures which has been expressly framed with that view,
after full inquiry and careful deliberation. Those measures would not
subject either the Colonies or the Mother Country to any expense what-
ever. In conjunction with the measures suggested for disposing of public
lands, and remedying the evils occasioned by past mis-management in
that department, they form a plan of Colonization to which I attach the
highest importance. The objects, at least with which the plan has been
formed, are to provide large funds for emigration, and for creating and
improving means of communication throughout the Provinces ; to guard
emigrants of the labouring class against the present risks of the passage;
to secure for all of them a comfortable resting-place, and employment, at
good wages, ^immediately on their arrival; to encourage the investment
of surplus British capital in these Colonies, by rendering it as secure and
as profitable as in the United States ; to promote the settlement of wild
lands, and the general improvement of the Colonies; to add to the value
of every man's property in land ; to extend the demand for British-manu-
factured goods, and the means, of paying for them, in proportion to the
amount of emigration, and the general increase of the Colonial people;
and to augrnent the Colonial revenues in the same degree.

When the details of the measure, with the particular reasons for each
of them are examined, the means proposed will, I trust, be found as sim-
ple as the ends are great ; nor have they been suggested by any fanciful
or merely speculative view of the subject. They are founded on the facts
given in evidence by practical men; on authentic information, as to the

140

wants and capabilities of the Colonies; on an examination of the circum-
stances which occasion so high a degree of prosperity in the neighbouring
States; on the efficient working and remarkable results of improved
methods of Colonization in other parts of the British Empire ; in some
measure on the deliberate proposals of a Committee of the House of Com-
mons ; and lastly, on the favourable opinion of every intelligent person in
the Colonies, whom I consulted with respect to them. They involve, no
doubt, a considerable change of system, or rather the adoption of a system
where there has been none ; but this, considering the number and mag-
nitude of past errors, and the present wretched economical state of the
Colonies, seems rather a recommendation than an objection. I do not
flatter myself that so much good can be accomplished without an effort ;
but in this, as in other suggestions, I have presumed that the Imperial
Government, and Legislature, will appreciate the actual crisis in the affairs
of these Colonies, and will not shrink from any exertion that may be
necessary to preserve them to the Empire.

By the adoption of the various measures here recommended. I venture
to hope that the disorders of these Colonies may be arrested, and their
future well-being and connection with the British Empire secured. Of
the certain result of my suggestions, I cannot, of course, speak with en-
tire confidence, because it seems almost too much to hope that evils of so
long growth, and such extent, can be removed by the tardy application of
even the boldest remedy ; and because I know that as much depends upon
the consistent vigour and prudence of those who may have to carry it into
effect, as on the soundness of the policy suggested. The deep-rooted
evils of Lower Canada will require great firmness to remove them. The
disorders of Upper Canada, which appear to me to originate entirely in
mere defects of its constitutional system, may, I believe, be removed by
adopting a more sound and consistent rnode of administering the Govern-
ment. We may derive some confidence from the recollection, that very
simple remedies yet remain to be resorted to for the first time. And we
need not despair of governing a people, who really have hitherto very
imperfectly known what it is to have a Government.

I have made no mention of emigration, on an extended scale, as a cure
for political disorders: because it is my opinion, that until tranquillity is
restored, and prospect of a free and stable Government is held out, no
emigrants should be induced to go to, and that few would at any rate re-
main in, Canada. But if by the means which I have suggested, or by
any other, peace can be restored — confidence created — and popular and
vigorous Government established — I rely on the adoption of a judicious
system of Colonization as an effectual barrier against the recurrence of
many of the existing evils. If I should have miscalculated the propor-
tions in which the friends and the enemies of British connection may
meet in the United Legislature, one year's emigration would redress the
balance. It is by a sound system of Colonization, that we can render
these extensive regions available for the benefit of the British people. —
The mis-management by which the resources of our Colonies have hith-
erto been wasted, has, I know, produced in the public mind too much of
a disposition to regard them as mere sources of corruption and loss — and
to entertain, with too much complacency, the idea of abandoning them as
useless. I cannot participate in the notion, that it is the part either of
prudence or of honour to abandon our countrymen, when our government
of them has plunged them into disorder, or our territory, when we disco-

141

ver that we have not turned it to proper account. The experiment of
keeping Colonies, and governing them well, ought at least to have a
trial, ere we abandon lor ever the vast dominion which might supply the
wants of our surplus population, and raise up millions of fresh consumers
of our manufactures, and producers of a supply for our wants. The
warmest admirers, and the strongest opponents of Republican institutions,
admit or assert that the amazing prosperity of the United States, is less
owing to their form of Government than to the unlimited supply of fertile
land, which maintains succeeding generations in an undiminishing afflu-
ence of fertile soil. A region as large and as fertile is open to Your
Majesty's Subjects, in Your Majesty's American Dominions. The recent
improvements of the means of communication will, in a short time, bring
the unoccupied lands of Canada and New Brunswick within as easy a
reach of the British Isles, as the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin are
of that incessant emigration that annually quits New England for the
Far West.

I see no reason, therefore, for doubting that, by good government, and
the adoption of a sound system of colonization, the British possessions in
North America may thus be made the means of conferring on the suffering
classes of the mother country, many of the blessings which have hitherto
been supposed to be peculiar to the social state of the new world.

In conclusion, I must earnestly impress on your Majesty's advisers, and
on the Imperial Parliament, the paramount necessity of a prompt and
decisive settlement of this important question, not only on account of the
extent and variety of interests, involving the welfare and security of the
British empire, which are perilled by every hour's delay, but on account
of the state of feeling which exists in the public mind throughout all your
Majesty's North American possessions, and more especially the two Ca-
nadas.

In various despatches addressed to your Majesty's Secretary of State, I
have given a full description of that state of feeling, as I found it evinced
by all classes and all parties, in consequence of the events which occurred
in the last session of the British Parliament. I do not allude now to the
French Canadians, but to the English population of both provinces. —
Ample evidence of their feelings will be found in the addresses which
were presented to me from all parts of the North American colonies, and
which I have inserted in an appendix to this report. But, strong as were
the expressions of regret and disappointment at the sudden annihilation
of those hopes which the English had entertained, of seeing a speedy and
satisfactory termination of that state of confusion and anarchy under
which they had so long laboured, they sunk into insignificance when com-
pared with the danger arising from those threats of separation and inde-
pendence, the open and general utterance of which was reported to me
from all quarters. I fortuantely succeeded in calming this irritation for
the time, by directing the public mind to the prospect of those remedies
which the wisdom and beneficence of your Majesty must naturally incline
your Majesty to sanction, whenever they are brought under your Majesty's
consideration. But the good effects thus produced by the responsibility
which I took upon myself will be destroyed ; all these feelings will recur
with redoubled violence ; and the danger will become immeasurably great-
er, if such hopes are once more frustrated, and the Imperial Legislature
fails to apply an immediate and final remedy to all those evils of which
your Majesty's subjects in America so loudly complain, and of which I
have supplied such ample evidence.

142

For these reasons I pray your Majesty's earnest attention to this report-
It is the last act arising out of the loyal and concientious discharge of the
high duties imposed upon me by the commission with which your Majesty
was graciously pleased to intrust me. I humbly hope that your Majesty
will receive it favourably, and believe that it has been dictated by the most
devoted feeling of loyalty and attachment to your Majesty's person and
throne, by the strongest sense of public duty, and by the earnest desire to
perpetuate and strengthen the connexion between this empire and the
North American colonies, which would then form one of the brightest
ornaments in your Majesty's Imperial Crown.

All which is humbly submitted to your Majesty.

DURHAM.

London, January 31, 1839.

m

I'ABLE OF CONTENTS

Dulies of the High Commissioner, Page 3 ; Extension of the inquiry to all the
North American Provinces 3; Evils of present uncertainty 4; Plan not affected
by resignation of Governor General 4 ; Weight of ordinary business 4; Magni-
tude of interests involved 5.

LOWER CANADA.

First inquiries directed to Lower Canada, Page 6 ; Erroneous views entertain-
ed in England 6 ; The real struggle not one of principles, but of races 7 ; Ani-
mosities between the French and English 7 ; Exasperation of the two races
against each other 8; Objects of the French Canadians not really democratic,
nor of the English Conservative 9; Animosities of both parties 10; Independent
spirit of the English 11 ; Dissimilarity of the races 11 ; Characteristics of the
French Canadians 11, 12; Their peculiar social condition 13; Conduct of the
English, of the officials, of the English Settlers 14; Animosities of the working
class not the result of a collision of interests 15; Points of opposition between
the two races 16; Education separate 16; Effects of difference of language 17;
Absence of social intercourse between the two races 17; Instance of this 18; In-
stance of national incompatibility 18; Intermarriages rare 18; Marked
division of society 19; No combination for public objects 19; Political
strife the result of such social feelings 19 ; Superior practical intelligence of
the English, although greater refinement may be found among the French 20;
Views of the English Settlers 20; Jealousy of the Assembly and dislike of im-
provements 21 ; Collision between the Executive and the Assembly 22; Appeal
to Arms by the French 22 ; The French will not loyally submit to British Gov-
ernment, nor the English tolerate a French majority in the Assembly 23 ; Ob-
struction of the course of Justice 23; Acquittal of the murderers of Chartrand
24; Another example of obstruction of Justice 24; Evils to society from national
animosities 24 ; Hopelessness of putting an end to animosities at present 25; The
Canadians would revenge themselves on the English by any aid 25 ; The English
population will never tolerate the French pretension to nationality 26 ; They
complain of being the sport of parties at home 26 ; Exasperation of the Loyal-
ists against the Americans, but with a current of contrary feeling 27; Evils of .
the conflict of races aggravated by the conduct ot the Government 28 ; Two
modes of dealing with conquered Colonies — the first why unadvisable in Lower
Canada 28; Mistaken policy of the British Government 29; Continued inconsis-
tency of British policy 30; The contest arose gradually 31 ; Continued errors
and vacillations of Government — Good Government impracticable whilst conflict
of races last 31, 32; Collisions between the Executive and the representative body
in all the North American Colonies 32; Such collisions show a deviation from
sound constitutional principles 33; Practical working of the Assembly in Lower
Canada 33; Administration remained free from its influence 33; The public
functionaries were independent of the Assembly 34; Dependence of the Governor
upon the official party 34; Impossibility of the working of the Colonial system
of Government 35; Opposition of the Assembly to the Government unavoidable
36; Popular leaders relieved of responsibility 36; Collision also with the Legis-
lative Council 37; Purposes of the Assembly 37; Attempt to alter the Constitu-
tional Act 38 ; Claim of force of law for resolutions of the Assembly 38; Sys-
tematic abuses of Constitutional forms 38 ; Parliamentary grants for local works
39; Importance of public works in American Legislation 40; Height to which
abuse of grants has been carried 40; Funds dispensed by Commissioners named
by the Legislature 41 ; Abuse of the patronage 41 ; Grants for Education 42;

UPPER CANADA.

Grants for relief from failure of harvests 42, 43; Lost opportunities for good Le-
gislation 43 ; Thorough disorganization of Institutions 44; Want of vigorous
administration in Royal Prerogative 44 ; Evils of committing details of Govern-
ment to Colonial Department 45 ; Report of House of Assembly, Upper Canada
46; Instances of these evils 47; Ignorance of the people as to the proceed-
ings of their Government 47; Want of responsibility in the Department
of the Government 47, 48; Constitution of the Executive Council 48;
Civil Secretary's Office 49; No regular administratian in the rural Districts 49 ;
French population incapable of aiding central authority 49, 50; Wants of Muni-
cipal Instiiutions 50; No French Institutions for administrative purposes 50;
System of Townships 50 ; Want of Municipal Institutions in Quebec and Mon-
treal 51 ; Inefficient administration of Justice 51 ; Civillavv51; District of Gaspe
51; Judges — jurisdiction — attempt at circuits — expensiveness of justice 52; Com-
missioners of small causes 52, 53; Court of Appeal 53. 54; I£e-organization of
Court of Appeal 54; Appeal to Privy Council 55; Faulty judicial divisions for
purposes of criminal justice 55; Sheriffs, &c. — perversion of justice 55; The
people have not confidence in criminal justice 56; Complaints of French against
tampering with juries 56; Complaints of English against juries 57; Trial by jury
at present bad 57; The magistracy 57; Police of Quebec — of Montreal 58; No
rural police 58,59; Defective means of education 59 ; No colleges for Protes-
tants 59; Inquiries of Commissioner 59; Population would not submit to assess-
ment for purposes of education 59; Provision in the United States 60; Obstacles
to general system 60; Nothing done by the government 60; State of hospitals,
prisons he. 60 ; Religion in Lower Canada — The Catholic Church — Virtues of the
Clergy — Recognition of their services 61 ; Want of extension of Catholic institu-
tions 61 ; Clergy Reserves — Meaning of u Protestant Clergy" — Importance of
consideration for the Catholic Clergy and People 61 — 62; Financial system should
be settled by the Local Government 62; Sources of public revenue 62; Diminu-
tion of Revenue 63 ; Financial disputes between the two Provinces 63 ; Post Office
63: Little direct Taxation in Lower Canada 64.

UPPER CANADA.

State of Upper Canada 64: Difficulty of ascertaining real objects of struggles
64 . Isolation of Districts 65: Features of the contest in the Assembly, &c. 65:
The " Family Compact" 65 : Opposition of Reformers and results 66 : Objects
and conduct of the Reformers— contrast with the French majority 66: Question
as to Executive Council 67 : Views of the Reformers in general 67 : Local job-
bing—Useful reforms 67 : Third party of recent Emigrants 68 : Proceedings of Sir
Francis Head 69: Real question decided by Election of 1836 69: Failure of
result aimed at by Sir F. Head 70: Real result of Sir F. Head's policy 70:
Legislature does not possess sufficient popular confidence 71 : Exasperation of
the people 71 : Proximate causes of the Insurrection 72 : Mackenzie's treasonable
enterprize 72: Difficulties of adjustment increased by late events 72; Irritation
excited 73: Feelings of the party 73: Difficulty of classifying parties 73: Pecu-
liar complaints of British settlers' 74 : Obstacles in the way of settlers 74: The
country should be made attractive to Emigrants 75: Question of Clergy Re-
serves 75: Proceedings of the Provincial Legislatures 76: Effect of Sir J. Col-
borne's establishment of Rectories 76: State of society adverse to the principles
of a dominant Church 77 : Members of Anglican Church likely to remain a
minority 77 : Mode of settlement suggested 77 : Policy towards the Catholics 78 :
Complaints of Orangeism 78: Impediments to industrial progress 79: Want of
means of communication, &c. 79: Contrast between Upper Canada and the
United States 80 : Prohibitory Revenue Laws 80: New York desired as a Port
of Entry 80: Spirit of improvement impeded by financial relations with Lower
Canada 81: Upper Canada denied the means of completing local works 81 :
Discontent of the Colonists 81 : British policy has disregarded the wants of the
Province 82.

THE EASTERN PROVINCES, dec. Ill

THE EASTERN PROVINCES, AND NEWFOUNDLAND.

Inquiries into the other North American Colonies 82: Working- of the Govern-
ment of these Provinces 83 : New Brunswick 83 : Nova Scotia 83: Constitution
of Executive and Legislative Councils 83 : Prince Edward's Island 84 : Backward
state of these Colonies 84 : Comparison with the United States 85 : Newfound-
land 85.

DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS.

Worst method of disposing- of public lands 85: Best method of disposing of
lands 87: Measures taken for inquiry 87: Practice of United States — of Great
Britain 88 : Efficiency of system of United States 88: No system in the North
American Colonies 88 : Contrast with United States 89 : Picture of the American
side — of the British side 89 — 90: Difference in value between British Provinces
and United States 90: Re-emigration from British Colonies to the border States
91 : Public opinion against the present mismanagement 92 : Much Wild Land out
of control of Government 92: Quantity of Public Land already alienated 92:
Clergy Reserves 93: The Constitutional Act — violation of law for benefit of
Clergy in Upper Canada 93: The same violation in Lower Canada 93: Objec-
tion to Clergy Reserves 94: Grants of Land in Upper Canada 94: Small portion
of land occupied by settlers 94: Land-jobbers — abusers of Grants 95: Evasion
of regulations by leaders and associates 95 : Rewards to Militiamen — Instructions
to Commissioners 96 — 97: Instructions of 1827 for discontinuance oPGrants 97:
Intention to establish a new system — Lord Goderich's regulations of 1831 — Dis-
regard of direction as to payments 98 : Importance of accurate Surveys 98, 99,
100, 101 : Inefficiency of Surveying Department 101 : Delays in completing Titles
101 — 102j Illustration of mismanagement 102: Large waste grants have caused
the abandonment of settlements 102 : Settlers have sold their farms for one-third
or one- fourth of the money expended in improving them 103 : Profusion o^grants
in P. E. Island 103: Influence of disposal of lands on public prosperity 103.

EMIGRATION.

Emigration 104; Number arriving at Quebec 104; Diseases and deaths on
board of Emigrant Ships 104; Miserable state of Emigrants when landed 104;
Infectious diseases spread into the City 104; Contagious diseases annually im-
ported into Quebec by Emigrants 104, 105 ; Operation of the Passengers' Act —
neglect of Agents — Frauds and evasions 105 — Measures by which evils have been
mitigated 105; Quarantine Establishment 106; State of the present arrangements
— Duties of Emigrant Agents — Real state of Emigrants landed at Quebec 106;
Vessels with Emigrants destitute of provisions on their arrival 106; Disease pro-
duced by defective arrangements — Extortions of Masters of Vessels — Provisions
insufficient — and Water — Vessels selected not sea-worthy — Concealment of Dis-
ease by Surgeons — Ignorance of Surgeons 106, 107, 108 — Want of Provisions for
Emigrants after arrival 108 ; No rules for guidance of Emigrant Agent at Quebec
109 ; Want of system produces re-emigration to the States 109 ; Leads to great
suffering 109; Case of the commuted Pensioners 110; Valuable Emigration field
in these Colonies 110.

IV CONCLUSION OP THE EEPORT.

CONCLUSION OF THE REPORT.

Grievous results exhibited 110; Existing state of things cannot continue 111 ;
Disorders of Lower Canada admit of no delay 111 ; Those of Upper Canada also
press for a remedy 111 ; No imminent danger in other North American Provinces
112; Mischief of retaining these Colonies in disorder 113 ; No proximate danger
of collision with United States 113; Sympathy stronger in Upper Canada 114;
Strong ties of sympathy between English and American frontier 114; No present
serious danger from the sympathizers — but Federal Government cannot whol ly
repress attempts 115; Indignation of the Canadian Loyalists 116; Disturb-
ances in the Canadas injurious to the United States 116; Existing subjects of
dispute with the United States Government 116; Prospects of depopulation
and impoverishment 117, 118; Difficulties of providing against dangers de-
scribed 118; How to make Colonial Government work harmoniously 119;
Responsibility of Government in England 119; Objections to elective Ex-
ecutive Council 120; How far tbe Home Government should interfere in
colonial concerns and appointments 120, 121; Loyalty of the British popu-
lation of these Colonies 122; The Crown should consult the popular wishes
in choice of its servants 122; How discontent might be dispelled in Upper Cana-
da 122; Money votes should not be proposed without consent of the Crown 123;
Good municipal institutions should be established 123; Land management 123;
Lower Canada should be made English, without violence to the French 124;
Objections anticipated 124, 125; English immigration cannot be checked 125;
Hopeless inferiority of the French Canadian race 126 ; Character of the Province
should be immediately altered 127; Plans for absolute Government in Lower
Canada 127; Importance of preserving the sympathy of the United States 127, 128 ;
The Legislature should represent public opinion — An irresponsible Government
necessarily weak 128; Objections to unfair means of securing an Engiish ma-
jority 128 ; A numerical English majority will alone obliterate French nationali-
ty 128; Case of Louisiana 129, 130; Disorders of Lower Canada only remedia-
ble by fusion with another Province — two kinds of Union proposed, Federal and
Legislative 130; Federal Union considered — its difficulties 131; Period of Fed-
eration past in Lower Canada 131 ; Legislative Union recommended 131 ; The
French when in a legitimate minority would abandon vain hopes of nationality
131; Advantages of Union to Upper Canada 132; Advantages of Legislative
Union to all the British Provinces 132 : A Legislative Union would counterbalance
existing tendencies to separation 132; It would provide scope for elevating the
ambitions of aspiring men 133; Reasons for union in common foreign relations
133-4; Reasons for union in internal relations 134; New interests would be called
into existence by union 134; Improved communication desirable 135; Union
desirable to Prince Edward's Island and Newfoundland 136; Opinion of H. R. H.
the late Duke of Kent 136 ; Difficulty in the way of union 136 ; Legislative union
should have the consent of the Colonial people 137; Recommendations of the
High Commissioner 137; Voluntary admission of the other Provinces into the
union 137; Objections to plans giving equal representation to the two Provinces
137; Power to the Governor of suspending Writs 138; Local Government by
elective bodies 138; General Executive and Supreme Court of Appeal 138; Con-
stitution of Legislative Council should be revised 138 ; Management of Public
Lands 139; Crown Revenues 139; Responsibility of Officers of Government 139;
Independence of Judges 139; Money votes 139; Clergy Reserves 139; Mea
sures to promote Emigration 139; Legislature should consult the unusual exi-
gencies of the case 139, 140; Possibility of arresting present disorder? 140;
Benefits of a judicious system of Colonization 140-142.

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